A BAKER is set to make some serious dough after finding a rare 539-year-old gold coin worth £15,000 while out metal detecting.
Mariusz Clepluch, 42, was thrilled to discover a prized Richard III Angel coin in a freshly-ploughed field in Overton, Hampshire, at a detectorist rally in April.
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The father-of-two, who moved from Poland to England 15 years ago, dug four inches down after getting a confident signal.
But he didn’t recognise the value of the treasure at first and had to research online before he shockingly identified it as a Richard III Angel.
The previous pennies were minted following his coronation in 1483 – only two years before he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth.
And the British king’s remains were discovered centuries later under a car park in Leicester in 2012.
Mariusz, who has been detecting for five years, is selling the coin with London-based auctioneers Noonans.
He will split the proceeds of the sale with the landowner and spend his share on a family holiday to Turkey.
The lucky searcher usually makes sourdough bread at a Clapham North bakery, south London.
He previously worked for 18 months at The Flour Station, baking bread for TV chef Jamie Oliver.
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Mariusz said: “I was at a detecting event and I had not found anything all day when I got a good signal.
“I dug down 4ins and found this coin.
“When I showed it to other people there they were quite excited and said it could be very valuable.
“When I got home I researched it and found it to was a Richard III angel and examples had sold for up to £20,000.
“It was quite a surprise.
“On the day of the auction I will be baking bread early in the morning but then I will stop for the sale.
“I would love to take my family on a two week holiday to Turkey.”
The coin is one inch in diameter and weighs just five grams.
It depicts St Michael spearing a dragon and carries Richard III’s boarshead mint mark.
Nigel Mills, consultant in artefacts and antiquities at Noonans, said: “This was the last Plantagenet king who died in battle at Bosworth Field in 1485 after reigning for only two years, and whose remains were discovered under a car park in Leicester in 2012.
“Anything from the reign of the Richard III is rare and this is the highest denomination that was produced, and along with the boarshead mint mark which was his own personal badge so to speak, makes this coin extra special.”
“We don’t know how many were produced but am sure they would have gone out of circulation pretty quickly after Henry VII came to the throne.”
The sale takes place tomorrow.
