AN EXTREMELY rare silver penny from the 12th century which was found in a field by a Dalton man has been sold for £10,540 at auction.

The coin, which depicts King Stephen, whose reign was marked by a civil war with his cousin Empress Matilda, is one of only 25 known specimens.

It was sold to a US Collector after being found by Graeme Rushton in October 2018 on the border of South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Mr Rushton has been detecting since he was eight and ten years ago he decided to start his own shop called Unearthed, which sells metal detectors.

After the sale, he said: “I’m naturally sad to see such a rare and desirable coin leave my collection but I hope the buyer enjoys it just as much as I did when unearthed it.

"The coin really does deserve to be in a special collection.

“If you are a detectorist you do it for the discovery of history though not the money.

“Hopefully, fingers crossed, we can get some more good finds soon.”

Mr Rushton, 50, explained the moment he made the significant find.

“It was only my second visit to the site which had just been ploughed and flattened,” he said.

“After about 45 minutes walking up a slight rise in the field I got a signal and after digging down five to six inches, I uncovered the coin which at first I didn’t recognise.

“It was only after showing pictures of it to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge that I realised how significant the discovery was.”

The coin has on the obverse the legend “STIENS” with standing figures of Stephen and Matilda facing each other supporting a tall sceptre between them, while on the reverse is a cross fleury over cross pommee with various ornaments around.

The coin was minted in York in the early 1140s and is in very fine condition.

Stephen of Blois was the grandson of William I, and became King of England on December 22, 1135 to his death in 1154.

For almost all of the 19 years of his reign a civil war raged with his cousin Matilda, with the English Royalist Barons supporting him while the Angevin French supporters backed Matilda, who was the daughter of Henry I of England and had nominated her as heir to the throne.

Stephen however claimed that his uncle had changed his mind on his deathbed recognising Stephen as his successor.

The find-spot was not far from where the Battle of Lincoln took place in February 1141 between Stephen and Matilda’s half brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester.

Stephen was defeated, captured and imprisoned for six months.