A tiny coin owned by an unnamed woman from Cambridge has been sold at an auction - for a staggering £38,400.

The little Chilean peso - a coin which nowadays is worth an eighth of a penny - is one of the rarest in the world.

It was part of a collection put together by the woman's late father not long after the Second World War.

It was identified by John Foster, the BBC Antiques Roadshow expert at an auction valuation day.

The auction was staged in London by Dix Noonan Webb, the international coins, medals and jewellery specialists. A spokesman said: "Bidding startedat £18,000 and quickly rose to a final hammer price of £32,000. With the auctioneers' commission added the anonymous buyer paid £38,400.

"The pre-sale estimate was £12,000 to £15,000, so this was more than twice as much as expected.

"The peso was part of a collection of coins assembled by the woman's late father during the years following the Second World War. None of therest of the collection was particularly unusual or valuable and she had no idea when or where he acquired the coin, which is regarded as a classicLatin American rarity by international collectors."

He added the woman, who had asked to remain anonymous, had revealed her father had never been to Chile.

He said: "Not surprisingly she was over the moon when she found out what the coin was."

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Ker-ching! Rare coin ringsup £38,400 at auction (/www.cambridge-news.co.uk/ker-ching-rare-coin-rings-up-38-400-at-auction/story-29777801-detail/story.html)