A rare copy of the Sex Pistols ' controversial single God Save The Queen has sold for £6,000 at auction . The never-played record is one of a handful out of 25,000 that were not destroyed by the punk band 's former record company . In near mint condition , it is among the most valuable records ever pressed in Britain . This rare copy of the Sex Pistols ' controversial single God Save The Queen has sold for £6,000 at auction . A & M Records ditched the rebellious punk rockers because of their bad behaviour on March 10 , 1977- just six days after signing them . A series of incidents including Sid Vicious breaking a toilet bowl , cutting his foot and trailing blood all over the office and John Lydon making a death threat to a good friend of A & M 's English director was enough for the company to wash their hands of them . Nearly all of the 25,000 copies of the single that had been pressed in the six days were promptly destroyed . Only nine copies with the original A & M sleeve are known to exist today and the one now being sold was saved by a former employee of the record company . The single was later released by Virgin , reaching No 2 in the charts . But its controversial lyrics and cover , featuring a defaced picture of the Queen , meant the BBC refused to play it . A & M Records ditched the rebellious punk rockers ( pictured ) because of their bad behaviour in 1977- just six days after signing them- and destroyed nearly all of the 25,000 copies of the single that had been pressed . An unnamed private collector bought the mint-condition record , one of only nine known copies , from Special Auction Services in Newbury , Berkshire . Alan Pritchard , SAS 's music and entertainment specialist , said : 'The Sex Pistols are such a cult band and this is the most iconic withdrawn single . 'There are very few in existence as most were destroyed when the band was dropped . Just a handful were kept behind by people in the industry . 'When you get rareties like this it attracts a lot of interest from collectors , vinyl is highly sought after worldwide . ' The highest recorded sale of the A & M version of God Save the Queen was £13,000 in 2006 when UK collector Marshal Peters sold a copy with its A & M card envelope .
A very rare copy of A & M Records God Save the Queen has sold for £6,000 . The never-played record is one of most valuable ever pressed in Britain . It 's one of just nine in existence with the original Sex Pistol 's sleeve . Most were destroyed after the company ditched them for bad behaviour .