Coining it! The penny set to sell for half a million pounds

A RARE gold coin struck nearly 800 years ago is set to sell for £500,000.

Some 52,000 of the Henry III pennies had to be scrapped because an error meant the gold each coin was made from was worth more than the penny itself.

Virtually all of the gold pennies, pictured, were smelted and were replaced with correctly weighed coins in 1257.

Today only eight of the coins exist, with five held by institutions. one of the three in private hands is being sold by an anonymous collector who has had it for 21 years. Cristiano Bierrenbach, of US-based Heritage Auctions, where the coin will go under the hammer on January 8, said: ‘These gold pennies were the first gold coins made in England.

‘[Henry III] ordered the creation of a gold coin for his kingdom to be struck at twice the weight of a silver penny.

‘The coins had a standard weight of 3.5 grams but an error was made and the coin was made too heavy, about 4.2 grams. After that the coin was pulled from circulation and they were melted down and more gold pennies were struck at the correct weight.

‘It is incredibly rare to come across one of these. It is a big ticket item and we expect it to got for higher than the estimate.’

one side of the coin shows Henry III on the throne, while the other has a long cross and the name Willem on LVND for William of Gloucester – the king’s goldsmith who was to blame for the coins weighing too much.