A MYSTERY Huddersfield man is £11,000 better off.
He sent four historic medals to a Leeds auction firm with a simple note: “Please sell these.”
And now auctioneer Gary Don has sold off the medals and left the seller stunned with their value.
The prized set of four valuable medals were posted to the firm by a man who did not want to be named.
Mr Don, 55, and his wife Liz, 53, received an old envelope with first class stamps from an elderly man with a simple note.
This week the four 19th century medals sold for a staggering total of £11,460.
Liz, who also works at the auction house, said: “It’s lucky the postal strikes weren’t going on when the medals owner sent them otherwise it might have been weeks before we received them, if at all.
“When we opened up the envelope last week and saw the four medals inside we knew straight away that at least a couple of them had real value.”
Gary added: “It’s remarkable really. They arrived in a normal envelope with stamps on. “We’ve never had anything sent to us through normal post like this before, it’s usually special delivery or recorded delivery.”
The medals were bought by the seller in the 1950s for a total of 26 guineas (£27 6s in pre-decimal money).
The 1848 Naval General Service Medal with a Trafalgar clasp and the name John Shears was the most sought-after and made £4,800.
A Waterloo Medal from 1815 awarded to William Hill of the 1st Battalion, 95th regiment, sold for £4,400.
A Military General Service Medal from 1848 with five clasps from Toulouse, Vittoria, Salamanca, Albuhera and Talavera made £1,640 pounds and a Military General Service Medal from 1848 with three clasps fetched £800.
Gary added: “The owner was absolutely gobsmacked when I told him what they had fetched.”
Three of the medals went to UK bidders and one by an American buyer.
