A 2,300-year-old rare gold crown found in tatty cardboard box is worth a LOT of money
 A 2,300-year-old rare gold crown is expected to fetch £100,000 after being discovered in a tatty cardboard box in Somerset. The delicate Greek myrtle wreath , which is thought to date to 300BC, is expected to make at least £100,000 when it goes up for auction. The antiquity was discovered in a modest cottage where the owner had kept it in a tatty cardboard box under his bed in Taunton and had no idea just how valuable it might be. The elderly owner, who wants to remain anonymous, asked valuers from Duke’s of Dorchester in Dorset to look at some items he had inherited from his grandfather. But Guy Schwinge from the auctioneers was astonished when he pulled aside the newspaper inside a tatty box to reveal the precious ancient artefact. Gold wreaths like this were meant to imitate the wreaths of real leaves that were worn in Ancient Greece in religious ceremonies and given as prizes in athletic and artistic contests. The current owner’s grandfather was a great collector who was fascinated by archaeology and the ancient world. He said: “I knew my grandfather travelled extensively in the 1940s and 50s and he spent time in the north west frontier area, where Alexander the Great was, so it’s possible he got it while he was there. “But he never told me anything about this wreath. “I inherited quite a lot of things from him and I just put this to one side for almost a decade and didn’t really think anything of it. “Recently I decided I needed to sort through things and called in Duke’s to have look at some of the items he’d passed on to me. “The wreath is a beautiful piece but I never expected it to be so valuable. “It was a mixture of excitement and just disbelief when they told me what it was.” Mr Schwinge said: “When the owner pulled the gold wreath from a tatty cardboard box filled with paper, my heart missed a beat.” He continued: “The wreath is in very nice condition for something that’s 2,300 years old.” A similar gold wreath sold at auction in 2012 for almost £200,000. The wreath will be sold on June 9. |
