Lot No 210, a 1937 coin set comprising gold sovereigns and £5 coins in a leather case, which sold for £8,000. Photograph: Wotton Auction Rooms
◆ Gold coins including gold sovereigns found in drawers of deceased retiree’s cottage sell at auction for £80,000
◆ British gold coins including gold sovereigns from the Royal Mint found in drawers and cupboards of cottage fetch £80,000; one British gold sovereign found in a sugar bowl
◆ Auctioneer John Rolfe expected little before he entered damp, rat-infested property near Stroud
◆ “There was a coin here, a coin there. If I opened a drawer there were more coins.” He even found a coin among sugar cubes in a bowl.
◆ “It was mind-blowing. I felt like a pirate in a grotto”
An empty house was found to be full of gold coins that have sold for a total of £80,000.
The property in Stroud, Gloucestershire, had been uninhabited after the owner died several months earlier.
The owner stashed the coins in strange places including drawers, cupboards, under furniture and in a sugar bowl.
Auctioneer John Rolfe, who found the coins, said: “It was mind-blowing. I felt like a pirate in a grotto.
“There was a coin here, a coin there. If I opened a drawer there were more coins.”
Philip Taubenheim from Wooton Auction Rooms which sold the collection said: “I have rarely encountered hoarding on this scale in my working career.
“We cleared the property forensically, with coins being found in the most unlikely of locations.
“One sovereign was found amongst the loose sugar in the bowl on the kitchen table.”
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