Coronation Bible

[Tony Summerfield]

Despite the bit on the 'contact' page that says we do not offer valuations, almost every day people ignore this and email me to ask how much their book is worth as they want to sell it on ebay. I ignore all these emails. Today, however, I got a very polite request for a valuation which was a bit different as it came from West Mercia Police! A Coronation Bible with an inscription by Enid had turned up in a lot of stolen items. They had found out that it had been sold in auction in 1998 and they wanted to know its value so that they could advertise it and try and restore it to its owner.


This is familiar ground as I frequently get asked about this particular Bible. The printers must take credit as everybody (including the police in this case) thinks that it was handwritten. The same message was printed in thousands of these Bibles, but everybody thinks that they have a gem. Funnily enough I got asked about another of these Bibles about two weeks ago. Someone spun me a complicated tale about how her grandmother had met Enid Blyton who had very kindly written this in the Bible specially for her and it was a much treasured item - which she now wanted to sell!! She refused to believe me when I told her it was printed and I had seen a great number of them over the years! Others have also got quite stroppy with me from time to time.

I have seen them selling (and being bought!) for over £100 on ebay, I used to warn buyers, but under ebay's new system this is now impossible. I did phone the police this morning and they were very grateful.

So be warned, if you see a similar item for sale it is worth - whatever an ordinary Bible is worth!