Haul of gold coins found stashed in piano worth £500k

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The largest collection of gold sovereign coins ever found has been officially declared  as treasure meaning the piano owner and the unwitting finder are due a share of the bounty.

But in a cruel twist of fate, the couple who donated the piano in 2016 are not entitled to a penny.

The haul  of 913 gold sovereigns and half sovereigns date between 1847 and 1915, have a face value of £773 - the equivalent of roughly £500,000 today.

Thanks to the Treasure Act 1996, the person who found the coins, Martin Backhouse, 61, a piano tuner hired by the school, is due a share of the value of the coins.



Equally, the owner of the property,  Bishop's Castle Community College in Bishop's Castle, Shropshire. is also due a share of the value.

The loot is expected to be claimed by the British Museum.

The coins, which weigh almost one stone, had been carefully stitched into seven cloth-bound packets and a leather drawstring purse.

These had then been stashed beneath the piano's keyboard in such a way that the instrument could still be played.

Meg and Graham Hemmings, previous owners of the piano said: 'Not long after we moved to Saffron Walden in 1983, we asked a friend of ours if he could keep an eye out for a second hand piano which we purchase for the use of our four children Sam, Will, Ben and Jessica.



'The rather attractive Broadwood piano arrived complete with two candlestick holders and the three boys in particular played it for the next 20 years.

'Although the iron-framed piano was tuned from time to time we had no idea that it contained the hidden coins.

'In 2005 the piano moved into storage prior to our purchasing a house in Bishop's Castle where we were privileged to live until we decided to 'downsize' in 2016.

'As our children had married and left home the piano was rarely played and functioned as a rather attractive piece of furniture in our dining room.

'We gladly donated and delivered the piano to the local Community College prior to our recent move in the knowledge that they would put it to good use.'



According to the British Museum, over 40 people contacted the Coroner with information about the find and attempted to make a claim.

However, none of the claimants were able to provide enough information to prove the gold belonged to them.

They have since been declared treasure by a Coroner.

A spokesperson for the British Museum said: 'The individual coins are not particularly rare being the button coinage of the British Empire.

'However, it is the largest hoard of its type known and the find is of significant importance from a historical perspective.

'It is a fascinating story. We are not aware of any other coin hoards being secreted in pianos.



'We assume the owner thought it was a good place to hide of somethings and indeed it has taken 75 years to rediscover.'

The sovereigns were declared treasure by Senior Coroner Mr John Ellery at an inquest at Shrewsbury Coroner's Court.

They were deemed to be made substantially of gold, have been deposited with the deliberate intention of being recovered in the future, and unable to be claimed by an original owner or their heirs.

It was tuning technician Martin Backhouse, who then found the 'gob-smacking' stash, initially believing the carefully-wrapped cloth packets delivering bum notes to be bags of 'moth repellent'.

Describing the moment of discovery, he said: 'As soon as I started lifting out the keys, I thought, uh-uh, what's this underneath the keyboard?

'I lifted one and thought, that can't be moth repellent, it's too heavy.'



Mr Backhouse slit the stitching with his penknife and when he looked inside, he recalled: 'Oooh, it looks like there's rather a lot of gold in this.'

He and the headmaster then moved the 6kg (13.2lb) hoard into the school's safe and rang the coroner.

Mr Backhouse and the school could now potentially be in line for a windfall from the hoard's sale.

Asked if it ever crossed his mind to keep the money, he said: 'No - I could have quite happily swapped them a brand-new piano for that one.

'But that would not have been right or proper.

'As it was gold, I thought that the school needs it just as much as I do, knowing the problems with the pianos in their school.'



Any money would go to his children, he said, adding he may retire early as he suffers with tinnitus.

Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Hemmings felt no bitterness, praising church-going Mr Backhouse's honesty in immediately reporting the find.

Mrs Hemmings, 65, said: 'The sadness is, it's not a complete story, they've looked and searched for the people and they unfortunately haven't come forward.

'It's an incomplete story - but it's still an exciting story.'

The piano itself, having always been in plain sight, was not declared as treasure as it was not 'an associated find'.

Several of the collections date from 1904 and 1913-1915, which has led those involved in the find to speculate it was hidden during