A MINOR detail missing from your 20p coin could make it 300 times more valuable.
A manufacturing error by the Royal Mint in 2008 meant that only around 250,000 coins were printed with this unique error.
What makes these 20p coins so valuable is that they are undated.
This means they were the first undated British coins to enter circulation in over three hundred years.
This oddity occurred due to the change of coin design in 2008.
Previously the date had been on either side of the Tudor rose design on the old ‘tales’ (reverse) side.
However, when this was replaced by the new shield design, the date was moved to be on the ‘heads’ (obverse) side instead.
These undated coins were produced when the old ‘heads’ design was combined with the new ‘tails’ design.
These coins are therefore mules – coins featuring obverse and reverse designs not normally seen together on the same coin.
The rarity of these mules means that they are sought after by many coin collectors, as well as other people just interested in them as a curiosity.
As a result, on 20th August 2024, two of these coins were sold for £122 following 7 bids.
Expensive as this may seem, it may actually have been a bargain.
The Britannica Coin Company website lists a single such mule as being for sale for £100.
This is far from the only rare coin to be worth much more than its face value would suggest.
A commemorative £2 coin celebrating the 2002 Commonwealth Games sells for up to £52.
Designed for Northern Ireland, the coin features an athlete whose silhouette resembles the shape of the UK carrying a flag representing both parts of Ireland.
Since only 485,500 such coins were printed, collectors are willing to pay well above their face value to obtain one.
Numismatists (coin collectors or scholars) have received further exciting news this week.
The first £1 coins depicting King Charles III have recently entered circulation.
Nearly 3 million of the new coins will be dispatched to banks and post offices across the country within the week.
Accompanying the ‘heads’ side’s traditional design of the King’s official coin effigy, the ‘tails’ side will feature two British bees, symbolising his dedication to conservation and nature.
King Charles’s 50p was already released in November 2023 and instantly proved very popular.
Only around 500,000 of the coins depicting a leaping salmon reached general circulation.
As such, desperate collectors forked out up to £27 on eBay to get their hands on it immediately.
