Top dollar paid for a rare coin

The British Museum said it had paid more than $630,000 for a rare, 1,200-year-old coin, believed to be the most ever paid for a piece of British money.

The coin, which dates from Anglo-Saxon times, depicts King Coenwulf, who ruled parts of southern England. It was to go on display Thursday.

The Coenwulf coin is one of only eight known gold coins of the mid- to late Saxon period, of which the museum now owns seven. It was discovered by a man with a metal detector beside the River Ivel in Bedfordshire, central England, in 2001 and later sold to an American collector living in Britain.