Historic coins worth more than £130,000 were stolen during a violent burglary.

Experts believe the collectors’ items, seized during an aggravated burglary in Portslade last month, may have been funnelled to North America, where they would fetch more.

The victim, who has not been named but is understood to be a coin expert, has now set up a website appealing for information about the whereabouts of the coins.


She was one of three women who were in a home in Benfield Way, Portslade, at 8.20pm on Friday, April 20, when a gang of men burst in.

The three men threatened the women before fleeing with a “large amount of gold and cash”, a Sussex Police spokesman said.

They also took a large haul of jewellery, including 18-carat gold pocket watches, five diamond rings and some sapphire gems.

US coin expert Doug Davis, from the Numismatic Crime Information Center, said: “The coins taken were worth about $200,000.

“They’ve probably been taken oversees to be sold at a coin fair as they would be more easily identified back in the UK.”

Detective Inspector Julie Wakeford, from Brighton and Hove CID, said: “This was a very frightening experience for the victims and fortunately they were not physically injured, but are nonetheless all very shaken from their ordeal.”

Items stolen include more than 100 mid-twentieth century English and European coins including threepences, shillings, pennies and farthing and 65 specialist Australian coins.

The thieves also took seven Canadian Maple 20oz gold coins and 45 Chinese gold coins.

A D-Day landings 60th anniversary souvenir Gibraltar gold coin was among the haul plus a significant number of coins marking royal occasions, including Elizabeth II coins from 1980, 1988, 1996, 2002 and 2005

Historic coins dating back to 1881 were also stolen.