Rare Cadbury egg sells for a massive £123,000... 43 years after it was made

Published: 00:26, 12 August 2026 | Updated: 00:43, 12 August 2026 A rare Cadbury's golden egg commissioned 43 years ago for a calamitous national treasure hunt has sold for a staggering £123,500. A dozen certificates entitling the finder to a 250g decorative egg were buried across Britain in perspex caskets for the 1983 contest. Participants had to unravel cryptic clues in a book called 'Conundrum - The Cadbury's Creme Egg Mystery' to find the secret locations of the small eggs made from gold. But the chocolate company was forced to call off the competition due to the number of complaints from landowners enraged at hordes of hunters digging up private property and protected sites. Six of the 12 golden eggs were claimed before the contest and advertising campaign were scrapped. One of the surviving eggs, found by Clive Pinder in Cricket St Thomas, Somerset, sparked a bidding war at Batemans Auctioneers in Lincolnshire. It was expected to fetch £15,000 to £20,000, but the undisclosed bidder paid six times the higher estimate on August 1 to smash the previous record price of £31,000 for a golden egg set in 2021. The auctioneers said afterwards that the six-figure sum was an 'absolutely incredible' price. A rare Cadbury's golden egg created for a 1983 national treasure hunt has sold at auction for £123,000 Only six of the 12 golden eggs, which were hidden in perspex caskets and could be found only by solving cryptic clues, were found before the campaign was suspended The 22-carat 3in-high egg, pictured, titled 'Cuckoo Cuckoo', is based on the Cuckoos of Crewkerne folk tale. Created by royal goldsmiths Garrard & Co of London, it is engraved and enamelled in translucent green and blue with a scene depicting a cuckoo in a tree. Various men can be seen standing among the trees below and are staring and pointing up at the bird. Mr Pinder sold the egg for £6,500 in 2018 and the buyer kept it before making a sizeable profit. A Batemans Auctioneers spokesman said the owner had asked them to sell the piece 'to pass on the wonder and joy at owning such an incredible thing'. And speaking to the BBC, the firm's Greg Bateman called the Conundrum eggs 'a fascinating piece of British cultural history'.