A rare Roman coin, believed to be the first of its kind discovered in the UK, has been sold for nearly £5000 at auction

According to BBC, a 76-year-old man named Ron Walters, from Kingswinford, West Midlands, found the coin in Wall Heath near Dudley with his metal detector in 2024.

A rare Roman coin, believed to be the first of its kind discovered in the UK, has been sold for nearly £5,000 at auction.

The coin, which dates back to AD69 and portrays the emperor Aulus Vitellius, was found by Ron Walters, 76, from Kingswinford, West Midlands, in Wall Heath near Dudley with his metal detector.

Vitellius’s rule was short-lived, lasting only eight months during a civil war known as the ‘Year of the Four Emperors’.

The coin is thought to be one and only of its kind found in the British Isles.

The coin sold for £4,700 to a collector from Scotland at Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge on Friday, March 28.

Mark Hannam, from Fieldings, said: "The coin was found last year by Ron Walters, a regular at our coins and medals auctions.

"Even though it's been in the soil for over 1,900 years, he's very pleased to add it to his collection. To find a coin from AD69 is incredibly rare.

"Most coins we find in this country are from the third and fourth centuries, and we are talking about a time when the gold was at its purest level."

The coin sold for considerably less than the only other similar artefact which was sold in Switzerland last year for around £50,000.

It is also noteworthy that the farmer who owns the land where the coin was found will get half of the money while Walters will get the other half.

Talking to BBC Radio WM, Walters said: "Anything's a bonus. Normally the things that you find, you put in your collection because they're not worth selling on.

"It's surprising what comes up; not just coins, it can be anything. Belt buckles, buttons, they've all got a story to tell."