Coin hidden in 1971 earns finder free pint of beer

A woman has claimed a free pint of beer after finding a coin and a mysterious message hidden in the wall of her house.

The card, discovered by Ellie Mead in Bicester, Oxfordshire, revealed the cache was left there in 1971 by electrician David Judd, who promised "one pint best beer if penny returned".

A Facebook appeal traced his daughter, Helen Russell, who revealed he was now aged 92, living in Devon and happy to honour the offer.

She said: "I do know that there are others all over the place but he won't tell me exactly where."

She said her father hid the coins while working as an electrical contractor in properties around the town, although Mead's home was one he actually lived in.

"It started off as a little bit of a joke, just to leave something to say 'I've been here'," she said.

"I don't think he ever really expected anybody to find anything at all."

Mead said the 1945 penny emerged suddenly when her partner kicked down a wall during renovations.

"Out popped this little coin flying across the room with a little bit of paper," she said.

"And I was just looking at it, [thinking] that was something I didn't expect to see."

Russell said her father had never had a claimant before and thought the find was "absolutely brilliant".

During a BBC Radio Oxford interview, she returned the penny to a delighted Mead so that it could stay in the house and "continue the story".

The finders have been paid the value of a pint, which they plan to buy at a Bicester pub which was once run by Judd's father.