Victoria, Farthing 1890 (Arlington Hoard)

In 1890 two gentlemen had a bet for £5 on which raindrop would come down first. £5 was a hell of a lot of money in those days. The gentleman who lost was a poor loser and paid off his bet with a bag of Uncirculated 1890 Farthings. The smallest coin made those days. The winner, a member of the Arlington family of Crichen House, Dorset just put the bag aside and forgot about it. About ten years ago that bag was found and most of it was sold at auction. The coins are Brilliant Uncirculated but they have some black carbon spots on parts of the coins. At auction, these coins brought about £60 each and today they catalogue £90. We didn’t buy them at the auction. No, we bought them from the man who found them. They are in Brilliant Uncirculated condition, never used but they have those black spots, the same as the ones in the auction, only ours are half the auction price, but supplies are limited.