Michael Leigh Mallory and his children found a 13th century coin during a metal detecting walk.

A gold coin, one of the oldest in England ever found, has sold for 648,000 pounds (778,64,000 euros at the current exchange rate). It was found by Michael Leigh Mallory and his sons, during a walk to practice their father's favorite "hobby", metal detecting.

As the newspaper Negócios reports, the 52-year-old man found the gold coin from the time of Henry III 10 cm deep in a Devon farmland in Hemyock, UK.

Meanwhile, the coin was sold by the Spink & Son auction house for 648,000 pounds, having beaten the reserve price of 540,000 pounds (648.86 thousand euros). It was bought by an anonymous private collector in the UK who intends to lend the coin to a public institution or museum.

Michael Leigh Mallory has pledged to split the money raised with the owner of the land, while also promising to allocate an undivided portion to charity. This Monday, the 52-year-old man went with his children to Henry III's tomb in Westminster Abbey to pay his respects and thank him for the achievement.

"It's completely surreal," Mallory commented in an interview with the Guardian. "I'm just a normal person with a lot of luck. This money will change my children's future," she added. With the money she will fund the archaeology studies of her daughter, Emily Leigh Mallory, who is 13, and her son, Harry, who is 10.

Contacted by the British daily, Regory Edmund, senior numismatist at Spink, pointed to this coin as "being not only the most valuable in British history, but also the most valuable medieval English coin ever sold at auction."