[GoldNugget]

The Most Expensive British Gold Coin posted at bbc.co.uk

A gold coin dating to Anglo-Saxon times has been bought by the British Museum for more than £350,000.

The deal by the central London museum makes it the most expensive British coin ever purchased.

It depicts King Coenwulf of Mercia, who ruled Mercia and much of southern England, in the early 9th Century.

A metal detector enthusiast found it next to the River Ivel in Bedfordshire in 2001, and it was later bought by a US collector.

When the owner put it up for sale last year, the Government put a temporary export ban in place hoping it would be saved for the nation.

The Coenwulf gold coin is tremendously significant as a new source of information on Anglo-Saxon kingship in the early ninth century Gareth Williams, British Museum curator

The National Heritage Memorial Fund provided £225,000 of the £357,832 total cost.

British Museum curator Gareth Williams said they were "delighted" to have acquired the coin for the national collection.

"The Coenwulf gold coin is tremendously significant as a new source of information on Anglo-Saxon kingship in the early ninth century," he said.