A family in Ellerby, Yorkshire, England was renovating their kitchen when they found a pleasant surprise under the floorboards and concrete: an earthenware cup filled with gold coins that dated from 1610 to 1828. According to auction house Spink & Son, the cache of 260 coins could fetch as much as $290,000. From CNN:
"The coins almost certainly belonged to the Fernley-Maisters, Joseph and Sarah who married in 1694," reads the press release[…]
Their family line dwindled soon after the couple died, which is presumably why the coins were never retrieved, the auction house added[…]
"Joseph and Sarah clearly distrusted the newly-formed Bank of England, the 'banknote' and even the gold coinage of their day because they (chose) to hold onto so many coins dating to the English Civil War and beforehand," [auctioneer Gregory Edmund] added.
"Why they never recovered the coins when they were really easy to find just beneath original 18th century floorboards is an even bigger mystery, but it is one hell of a piggy bank."
