Error 20p coin found in change sells for over £90 on eBay – is one hiding in your wallet?

A RARE error 20p has sold for over £90 on eBay – and it’s all because there’s something missing on the design.

The fault, that’s left the coin date-less, has meant it has sold for as much as 460 times its original face value – which would have otherwise been a mere 20p.

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The rare coin sold on eBay on April 2, for exactly £92.

Four bidders put down 15 offers between them, as they battled it out to claim the unique copy for their own.

But there’s a reason it managed to fetch such a high price tag once bids ceased and the virtual hammer came down on the listing.

In November 2008 a number of 20p coins were minted incorrectly, and it meant they entered circulation with one glaring fault on the design.

That mistake resulted in the coins being undated.

Less than 250,000 coins will have been affected.

But 136 million 20p pieces were minted around the same time frame, so that means coming across one of these rare error versions could be a once in a blue moon chance to get quids-in.

There is an explanation for the fault and The Royal Mint says it’s due to the previous obverse being used with the new reverse design, meaning the year of issue ended up not making it on the design at all.

But the coins are still legal tender, so there’s every chance it could crop up in your own change.

And that’s exactly what happened, when one eBay seller found the coin in their own pocket money and decided to sell it on, on the online auction site.

Is one hiding in your wallet?

Even the simplest mistakes found on a coins design could be worth a mint – so it pays to keep an eye out.

Collectors have spotted the same 20p error before and sold their copies for as much as £57 on eBay in the past.

It’s the same with limited edition designs that The Royal Mint officially releases with low mintage figures – like the Kew Gardens 50p or anything from the Beatrix Potter collection or the Olympic range.

Because less are circulating, they are deemed more scarce and valuable by collectors.

But experts warn that a number of fake coins often end up in circulation, so you have to be careful when you’re bidding online.

Change experts like Coin Hunter will help you verify if your rare finds are real, and they can help place a value on coins you come across.

You can scroll through other eBay listings to get a general idea of how much collectors are willing to pay too.

And usually you can determine if something is the real deal by the number of bidders who were willing to stake their claim on it.

We’ve often seen bidding wars break out on the most highly sought-after copies.

But keep in mind that a buyer can always pull out of the sale, which means it won’t have sold for the price that it may say it has.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk