AN incredibly rare American coin from the year of the Declaration of Independence found in a toffee tin by staff at a Gloucestershire auction house has sold for £25,000 ($32,000).

Known as a Continental Dollar, the coin, measuring 38mm across and made of pewter, was minted in 1776 in the United States after being designed by Benjamin Franklin.

It had a limited production run with around just 6,000 believed to have been made and as few as 100 thought to remain.

The coin had to be sent to the United States to be verified due to its rarity and the number of fakes in existence but has now sold for a whopping £25,000 at a sale by Wotton Auction Rooms in Wotton-under-Edge.

Auctioneer Joseph Trinder explained that the valuable coin was discovered in a large toffee tin brought by a private vendor.

“This coin represents a discovery that is in the top five of my career to date, and the sort of thing every auctioneer up and down the country hopes they’ll find," he said.

“We discovered it in a large toffee tin a private vendor brought to us, full of all manner of interesting sorts of knick-knacks - other coins, little bits of jewellery, carved stone and fossils.

“We had a jolly good look through and made sure we got to the bottom of everything inside.

''There were some really interesting pieces like gold coins and some other valuable items, but, languishing at the bottom of this tin of treasures we found this amazing Continental Dollar coin.”

Due to its potential value, the coin was transported back to America for its authenticity to be verified by coin grading experts the Numismatic Guaranty Company.