English penny coin used in the 1966 World Cup Final coin toss to sell for £5,000+

English penny coin used in the 1966 World Cup Final coin toss is set to sell for £5,000+ at Graham Budd Auctions.

1966 World Cup final penny used in coin toss to sell at Graham Budd auctions
Image: Graham Budd Auctions

 

The 1966 penny coin was used in the coin toss by Swiss referee Gottfried Dienst to determine the direction of play in the first half of the 1966 World Cup Final between England and West Germany.

It may not look much but it can be considered one of the most important pieces of English football memorabilia, relating to their first and only World Cup Win.

And collectors are thinking the same as current bidding is now £5,500 against an estimate of just £1,000 - £2,000.

The coin bears the Britannia engraving on one side with the portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the other side. The coin itself is not special with 1966 1d coins freely available on sites likes eBay for less than a pound.  

The coin originates from the collection of football memorabilia collector Bryan Horsnell, a retired postal worker, famed for collecting  football medals, caps and jerseys for over 60 years.

Despite the historic occasion, with England winning the World Cup 4-2, surprisingly little in the way of memorabilia exists.

The occasional winners medal comes up at auction, with Ray Wilson's selling for £136,000 at Sotheby's in November 2014.

Alan Ball World Cup winners medal to be sold by Tennants Auctioneers
Image: Alan Ball's medal to be auctioned by Tennants Auctioneers

 

Alan Ball's winners medal is due to be auctioned by Tennants Auctioneers on 8th December with a £80,000 - £120,000 estimate.

It'd be fair to think that Geoff Hurst's shirt would be the most valuable piece of memorabilia from the 1966 World Cup final.

It originally sold for £91,750 at a Christie's Auction in 2000 before being sold privately to property investor Andrew Leslau in 2008.

Leslau attempted to sell the shirt at Sotheby's in 2016 but the shirt surprisingly went unsold with a £300,000 - £500,000 estimate.

Hurst remains the only player to have scored a hat trick in a World Cup Final.

Given Maradona's 1986 'Hand of God' World Cup shirt recently sold for £7,100,000 what price would you put on Geoff Hurst's shirt now?

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