The night the FA Cup was stolen from a shop window

The original FA Cup, created for £20 by Sheffield silversmiths Martin, Hall & Co and nicknamed the “little tin idol,” vanished from a Birmingham shop window on Sept. 11, 1895, in the wake of Aston Villa’s cup final win. Villa had returned to Birmingham with the trophy after beating West Bromwich Albion 1-0, and a local boot and ball maker, William Shillcock, had arranged for the cup to be displayed for fans to view up close.

During the middle of the night burglars struck, and the trophy disappeared. A reward of £10 was offered, but the search turned up nothing; the cup was never recovered. In the wake of the loss, Aston Villa was fined £25 by the Football Association for misplacing the prize while in their care. Notts County later referenced the era, noting the first FA Cup trophy’s history in 1894, the year before it was stolen.

With the original missing, Birmingham-based silversmiths Vaughtons were commissioned to craft a replacement. The company had family ties to Villa—the founder's grandson, Howard Vaughton, later became a partner and had previously won the FA Cup with Villa in 1887. Vaughtons had even prepared a plaster cast of the trophy three years earlier to produce a miniature for Wolverhampton Wanderers. The replacement, known as the Birmingham-made FA Cup, served as the trophy until 1910, when it was replaced by a Bradford-made design and presented to the President of the FA, Lord Kinnaird.

In the late 1950s, a Birmingham petty criminal then in his 80s claimed he and two others had stolen the silverware and melted it down to make counterfeit half-crown coins. He suggested some of the counterfeit money was spent at a pub run by former Aston Villa player Dennis Hodgetts, who had won the FA Cup with Villa in 1895 and 1887, according to the National Football Museum. The confession, however, could not be proven.

The Birmingham-made cup was replaced in 1910 by the Bradford-made trophy, which has remained the model for the modern era. The current trophy was lifted by Crystal Palace after they won the most recent final in May, a reminder of how the competition’s history remains intertwined with the sport’s present. The FA Cup’s global recognition endures, even as the original relic’s fate remains one of football’s oldest unresolved chapters.

Today the story endures as one of football’s most enduring mysteries. The Notts County image from 1894 underscores the era’s early glory and the trophy’s central place in the game’s lore. While the replacement preserved the competition’s continuity, the original silver relic’s disappearance continues to intrigue historians and fans alike.