Type 3a1 halfcrown of Charles I

Bill Wiggins said his fascination with coins began in 1965, when aged only nine years old he found the coin pictured here whilst digging in his father’s greenhouse. I remember playing on a building site when I was very young and a workman unearthed a battered 1806 halfpenny. I’d never seen anything so old and thought it wonderful when the workman presented the halfpenny to me. How did you first get interested in old coins?

Bill’s find is a type 3a1 halfcrown of Charles I. It was struck at the mint in the Tower of London and the mint mark, a tun, dates it between 1636 and 1638. The coin is short of flan and worn on the high points but I’ve seen far worse halfcrowns of Charles I.

Hammered gold coin found in plant pot

A few years back I heard about someone who had bought a plant in a pot at a garden centre. When the buyer got home and took the plant from the pot to put in their garden they discovered a hammered gold coin in the roots. This generated some wide publicity, which led to the garden centre suing the person who had bought the plant.

There was a court case, the outcome of which was that the judge ruled the buyer of the plant had sole rights to anything found in the accompanying pot. I don’t know what the buyer had originally paid but the hammered gold coin would have led to a huge profit.

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