A set of Edward VIII pattern coins was added to the royal collection but the remainder were stored in a safe of the deputy master of the Royal Mint and not rediscovered until his death in 1950.
It was then that a second set of coins was created. Some were given to the British Museum and the Royal Mint and a few privately transacted with collectors. Edward, then the Duke of Windsor, also asked for a set of ‘his coins’ but his request was declined by the king.
This coin, last sold in 1978, came for sale as part of The Waterbird Collection of Choice Numismatic Rarities with a £60,000 estimate.
The current world record for a British penny is held by the 1933 penny of Edward VIII’s father King George V, which last changed hands in New York in 2016 for the equivalent of £150,000.
