The collection has been consigned by the owner, who lives on the Mid Wales coast, to Halls Fine Art’s Books, Coins and Stamps Auction in Shrewsbury on March 20.

Derek Ainsworth, Halls Fine Art’s coins specialist, said the coins, which are all in mint condition, were originally collected by the owner’s late father. They range from £5 and £2 denominations to sovereigns and half sovereigns.

One of the sets of mint condition gold coins from the collection.

He is delighted that the March auction seems set to build on the success of the company’s most recent coins sale last November when a fine private collection of Roman coins sold for more than £17,500.

Also consigned to next month’s auction is a collection of around 100 Greek, Roman and hammered UK coins dating to the reign of Henry VIII and valued at around £4,000.

This collection includes a plugged James I gold laurel, which is valued at up to £700.

The James I gold laurel valued at up to £700.

A 1554 Philip and Mary shilling valued at up to £400.

“The vendor, who has a home in Shropshire, worked abroad for a number of years and bought the coin collection from a colleague, who was short of money, whilst working in Canada in the 1990s,” explained Mr Ainsworth, who is cataloguing the coins.

“He has had the collection for around 30 years but had no idea how valuable it was until he brought it in to our Shrewsbury office to sell.”

Another interesting consignment is a small collection of 18^th century banknotes from a Shropshire collection which is  valued at around £700.

Mr Ainsworth expects to have around 100 lots on offer in the auction including British and foreign coins as well as Royal Mint year sets.

Coins, books and stamps are still being accepted for the auction until February 16. Contact Halls Fine Art on Tel: 01743 450700 or email fineart@hallsgb.com for further information.