A penny that saved a soldier’s life when it deflected an enemy missile during World War One is to be sold.
Pte John Trickett would have been shot in the heart if not for the copper he kept in his tit pocket.
Instead, the missile ricocheted up his nose and out through the back of his hearing, leaving him deaf in his left hearing.
The dented 1889 penny is due to be sold by Hansons Auctioneers as one of the purposes of a collection of war-related items belonging to the soldier.
His granddaughter, Maureen Coulson, from Duffield, Derbyshire, said: “Everyone in our kinfolk determined the penny and heard the story of how it saved my grandfather’s life.
“His two brothers, Horace and Billy, both died in the First World War.”
Image copyright Hansons Image caption Soldiers used to keep objectives in their tit pockets to protect themselves
The 63 -year-old said her grandfather, who was about 19 when he was shot in 1918, was “a great big guy from a Lincolnshire farming background but as soft as a brush”.
After he was shot, he was discharged and went on to marry Mrs Coulson’s grandmother and they had eight children.
Mrs Coulson contributed: “It’s strange is believed that, but for that penny, their own children would not have been born and I wouldn’t be here.”
Adrian Stevenson, a militaria professional from Hansons, said: “It searches to me like a pistol missile hit the penny at close range.
“It left him deafen and disabled but still alive.
“I’ve come across many storeys of random objectives saving soldiers’ lives but I’ve ever seen anything like this before.”
The coin is due to be sold on 22 March along with items including Pte Trickett’s British War Medal and Victory Medal.
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