Mystery surrounds treasure trove of gold coins hidden in piano in Shropshire
Investigators have been left scratching their heads as to why a treasure trove of gold coins was hidden in an old piano . The collection of 913 coins, declared as treasure by a coroner on Thursday, was found hidden beneath the instrument’s keyboard at a school in Shropshire as it was being retuned. It is reported the hoard could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, though it still has to be formally valued. Experts from the British Museum say the coins range in date from 1847 to 1915 and include 633 full sovereigns and 280 half-sovereigns. They were found neatly stacked in several hand-stitched bags and would have been worth around £773 at the time they were hidden, well above the average house price of £619. The collection is yet to be formally valued The majority of the coins date from the reign of Queen Victoria and were found to be 91.7% pure gold. At an inquest into the discovery, coroner John Ellery ruled that the gold coins were treasu...