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06 Oct 04 20:12 21:12 UK |
An Anglo-Saxon penny fetched £230,000 at auction - breaking the world
record for a British coin.
Specialists at Spink auction house in London had expected it to fetch between £120,000 and £150,000.
American collector Allan Davisson bought the gold coin, which was found with a metal detector near the River Ivel in Bedfordshire in 2001.
It is the only known coin to bear the name of King Coenwulf of Mercia and to show a clear regal design.
Experts at Spinks had been fascinated by its reference to the "wic" of London, an Anglo-Saxon settlement outside the city walls.
The previous auction record was held by a gold coin bearing the crown of George III, which raised £170,500 in 1999.
In 1984, an Anglo-Saxon gold penny fetched £23,100 while an English gold penny fetched £149,500 in 1996.