A Bicester woman claimed a pint promised in 1971 after finding a coin in her wall.

A woman renovating her home in Bicester, Oxfordshire, has claimed a pint of beer promised more than five decades ago after she found a coin and a handwritten message hidden inside a wall.

Ellie Mead said the discovery was made when her partner knocked down part of a wall during work on the house. A 1945 penny came loose and flew across the room with a small piece of paper attached to a business card. The card identified the man who left it behind as David Judd, an electrician who had hidden the coin in 1971 and added a simple offer on the back: “one pint best beer if penny returned.”

The find turned a routine home renovation into a local search for the man behind the message. Mead used Facebook to try to trace Judd or his family, and the appeal led her to his daughter, Helen Russell. Russell said her father is now 92 and lives in Devon, and that he was pleased to honor the promise he made when he placed the coin in the wall.

Russell said her father used to hide coins in properties around Bicester while working as an electrical contractor. She told the BBC that the idea began as a joke and as a small way of marking that he had worked in a building. According to her, Judd never expected anyone to find one of the hidden coins, and he has not told his family exactly where the others may be.

The house where Mead found the penny had an added link to the story. Russell said it was not just a property where her father had done electrical work but one where he had actually lived, giving the discovery a more personal connection to the family.

Mead described the moment of the find as unexpected. She said the coin and paper appeared suddenly as the wall came down, and at first she did not know what she was looking at. Once she read the note, the message turned a loose coin into a small piece of local history tied to a specific person, date and place.

Russell said her father had never previously had anyone come forward with one of the coins. She said he found the whole episode “absolutely brilliant.” During an interview with BBC Radio Oxford, she handed the penny back to Mead so it could remain in the house where it was discovered and continue to be part of the property’s story.

The promise of a drink was also kept. Mead and her partner were given the value of a pint of beer, which they said they plan to spend at a pub in Bicester that was once run by Judd’s father.