I found an incredibly rare coin in a charity shop bag – now I'm selling it for £7,000
A RARE coin found in a bag of 'holiday money' donated to an Oxfam charity shop is tipped for £7,000.
Volunteer John Turner, a retired banker and coin enthusiast, was sorting donations at the store in London when he made the discovery.
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He saw the 1813 silver coin that he thought might be valuable, so he passed it on to his bosses.
They took it to an auctioneer who identified it as a New South Wales 15 Pence.
These coins, the first to be minted in Australia, were melted down in the 1840s, and surviving examples were highly sought after.
London-based auctioneers Noonans have valued the coin at £5,000 to £7,000 and John will donate the proceeds from the sale to Oxfam, where he has volunteered for the past ten years.
Because the bag of foreign coins was not marked as Gift Aid, they were unable to trace the person who donated them to the store in Orpington, South East London.
John, who is in his mid-70s, said: 'I started collecting British coins and later British Empire money as a teenager, so I had some knowledge to build on; but I learned a lot from volunteering.
“In April 2023 I was invited to the Orpington store to sort some donations of loose material into bags.
'On a cursory examination these seemed to be largely what I would describe as 'holiday pay', with some, but little or no, collector's value.
“After sorting the 'easy' items into different categories and pricing a few items that required some looking up, I was left with a small silver-gray colored item that I had never seen before, inscribed 'New South Wales 1813 Fifteen Pence '.
“I used the internet as my first line of research and found two such items that had sold for between £30 and £50.
Searches on auction site results, mainly in Australia, but also in Britain, showed a wide variety of prices achieved, but one UK site showed a sale of over £2,000, to give a rough example.
“The Australian results were significantly higher.
'My assessment was that if the coin was genuine it could be worth at least £5,000.
'However, this was far beyond my jurisdiction to judge, and given its outcome it somehow made it unlikely.
“The bags from Orpington were not marked as eligible for Gift Aid, meaning there was no way to trace the donor.
“Following this investigation I said to the Orpington deputy manager that we may need to tell the area manager what we might have.
“This ultimately led to Oxfam referring the coin to Noonans, who were able to confirm the coin was genuine.”
Oxfam praised John's discovery and said his generosity would provide crucial funds to tackle world poverty.
Shelley Hitch, Valuer at Oxfam added: “Volunteers like John are so valuable to Oxfam, and this is a fantastic discovery.
“It means even more to know that the money raised will go towards vital funds to help fight poverty around the world.”
Tim Wilkes, head of coin at Noonans, said: “The market for these early Australian pieces is very strong and we hope this piece will do well.”
The sale will take place on February 6.
How to find out how valuable your coin is
The most valuable coins are usually those with a low mintage number, historically important or an error.
After you have an idea what the coin is, the next step would be to look at what has been sold on eBay recently.
If you have a coin that you would like to sell at auction, please contact a member of the British Numismatic Trade Association.
They usually deal in very old coins, but may be able to help you assess whether it is worth selling your coin at auction or whether it is valuable to the collector.
Or you can sell the coin yourself on eBay.
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