A dented penny that saved the life of a British soldier during World War I over one hundred years ago is now being put up for auction.

Private John Trickett kept the penny in the top breast pocket of his soldier’s uniform to remind him of home while he served his country. In 1914, while John was fighting on a French battlefield, the penny saved his life when it took the impact of a German bullet.

An enemy soldier had aimed for John’s heart, but the penny completely blocked the bullet from hitting him. John kept the penny on him for the rest of his life to remind him of the moment he looked death in the eye during a war that killed ten million people, including two of his own brothers.

“Everyone in our family saw the penny and heard the story of how it saved my grandfather’s life,” said his granddaughter Maureen Coulson. “His two brothers, Horace and Billy, both died in the First World War. My grandad was the only survivor.”

“My grandad was born in 1899 and would have been around 19 years old when the incident happened,” she continued. “He had to come home because of the injury. It damaged his left-hand side and left him deaf in his left ear. It also affected his balance. We think it’s likely he signed up to serve in the army when he was under age as he looked older than he was. Many soldiers were under age, they were so keen to serve their country.”

“He was a great big guy from a Lincolnshire farming background, but as soft as a brush. He worked with horses back home and couldn’t bear to see the way they were treated on the battlefield,” Maureen said. “When he returned to the U.K., he married my gran, Clementine, and they had eight children. He had various jobs after the war, including working as a postmaster and as a switchboard operator at Barnburgh Colliery in South Yorkshire. I was only six when he died [in 1962, but] I remember him well.”

“It’s strange to think that, but for that penny, his children would not have been born and I wouldn’t be here,” she concluded.

The coin is set to be sold on Friday at Derbyshire’s Hansons Auctioneers for an estimated of £30 to £50. Military expert Adrian Stevenson, who found the coin, has talked about how rare and special this coin really is.

“It looks to me like a pistol bullet hit the penny at close range,” he said. “I’ve come across many stories of random objects saving soldiers’ lives but I’ve never seen anything like this before. Soldiers used to keep objects in their breast pockets in an attempt to protect themselves from enemy fire and explosions. Shrapnel was the biggest killer in wartime.”

“It’s likely John Trickett kept the penny there on purpose. When the bullet hit the coin, it ricocheted up through … his ear. It left him deaf and disabled, but still alive,” Adrian continued. “I’ve heard about random objects deflecting bullets to save lives before but, until now, I’d never had the opportunity to see and examine them myself.”

“I hope a keen militaria collector will buy and treasure these items,” the expert concluded. “The penny is a poignant reminder of the fine line between life and death, particularly in wartime.”