Boost for charities as gold coin find is converted into donations

Sarah Gallagher and Sarah Kenny of Kenny's Bookshop with the two gold coins found hidden in a prayerbook which was bought as part of a collection. The solid gold coins believed to be Mexican and dating from 1947 were sold and the proceeds donated by Kennys. Pictured on Wednesday with their cheques from the sale are (l-r) Fintan Maher and Carol Hynes of Galway Simon with Deidre Madden and Brian Madden of The Red Cross. Photo:_ Mike Shaughnessy

Sarah Gallagher and Sarah Kenny of Kenny's Bookshop with the two gold coins found hidden in a prayerbook which was bought as part of a collection. The solid gold coins believed to be Mexican and dating from 1947 were sold and the proceeds donated by Kennys. Pictured on Wednesday with their cheques from the sale are (l-r) Fintan Maher and Carol Hynes of Galway Simon with Deidre Madden and Brian Madden of The Red Cross. Photo:_ Mike Shaughnessy

Back in May, archivist Sarah Gallagher at Kenny’s Bookstore found two gold coins down the side of the spine of an old prayerbook as she was cataloguing it. The coins were from Mexico, and were dated 1842-1947, and were valued at up to €5,000.

Kennys’ have found many things in books and files over the years, but nothing like this. The book came from a new library of 25,000 books that they had recently acquired.

The story got a great response and interest from the public. They contacted those who they had bought the library from, as they didn’t expect to find anything like it.

Kenny’s had several enquiries about the coins and decided to donate the sale proceeds to charity, splitting between The Galway Simon Community and The Irish Red Cross Ukraine Appeal.

Last week, the proceeds from the sale of the coins were handed over to the two charities.

 

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