Well, a pocketful of coins can be just that, a pocketful of annoyingly jingling coins. On the other hand, a pocketful of coins can signify a fortune, providing certain conditions are met

Scrape the bottom of your handbags, ladies. Turn out your pockets, gentlemen.

Did the search unearth any loose coins? If yes, select eleven of them – any eleven – and take a good look at them.

Now imagine that the small pile of coins in the palm of your hand is worth R170,000. Yes, that is right. A set of eleven South African coins from 1892 was sold recently on bidorbuy for R170, 000.

The set was placed on auction on 13th June 2008, with the starting price of R1 and the minimum bid increment of R1000. The auction closed on 1st July at 20:00 with the eleven coins reaching the price tag of R170, 000. On the first day of the listing, the bidding went from R4, 500 to R40,000. The R100,000 psychological mark was surpassed the next day. You may see the bidding details on this page.

The set of eleven 116 years old coins includes:

• one 6 pence coin
• one half-a- pound coin
• one  2.5 shillings coin
• one 2 shillings coin
• one 1 shilling coin
• one 2 pence coin
• one 1 penny coin
• two 5 shillings coins
• two 2 pounds  coins

All coins come with the grading issued by the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. The seller scrupulously emphasised that the 1892 6 Pence MS 63 was replaced by an 1892 6 Pence AU 50 (the collectors will know what this means), citing that as the reason for the lower price of the total set (lower price? Hmmm). Both the seller and the buyer remain anonymous, because the seller chose to protect both his identity and the identity of the bidders by using bidorbuy‘s discrete listing option.

This is not the highest price paid for coins on bidorbuy. In July 2007, one single extremely rare South African Kruger coin dating from 1892 sold for R210, 000. Those in the know say that South African coins minted between 1874 and 1902 are among the fastest appreciating coins in the world.