The Anglo-Saxon coin with Coenwulf’s bust. (AFP)

London, Feb. 8 (Reuters): A unique Anglo-Saxon gold coin, found by an amateur treasure hunter in 2001, was saved for the UK on Wednesday after the British Museum paid a record ?357,852 to the American owner.

It is the highest amount ever paid for a British coin.

The acquisition of the 1,200-year-old coin, minted in the reign of Coenwulf who ruled Mercia from 796 to 821, turns a neat profit for American collector Allan Davisson who bought it at auction in October 2004 for a then record ?230,000.

“The Coenwulf gold coin is the most important single coin find for quite some time,” said the museum’s Anglo-Saxon coin curator Gareth Williams. “It is a significant contribution to British monetary history.”

He said the sudden surge in the price of the coin was due to the fact that Davisson had refused to sell it to the museum at the auction price and instead produced a notarised offer at the higher price from a private American collector.

As the museum is obliged by law to offer the going market rate it had no choice but to pay the new asking price.

“There is a flaw in the system that needs to be closed in the future,” Williams said.

The coin, the size of a modern British one pence coin, is one of only eight known gold coins from the mid to late Saxon period ? seven of which are now owned by the museum ? and is considered to be the best example.

It is also thought to be probably the earliest example of a gold coin bearing the name of an English ruler as part of circulating currency.

One side of the coin, in near mint condition despite its age, carries a stylised Roman bust of Coenwulf and his name. The other is inscribed “de vico lvndoniae” which translates as “from the trading place of London” ? a form of wording that is deemed to indicate a rivalry with Coenwulf’s powerful continental contemporary Charlemagne.