A DAD was shocked after he flogged a 50p coin and bagged himself £1,250.
Rob Sanderson, 43, was left a London 2012 Olympics coin by his late dad Barry.
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The aquatics 50 pence piece shows an Olympic swimmer breaking the surface of the water.
The rare coin – which is only one of 29 made by The Royal Mint – is worth thousands if it’s in good condition.
Despite Rob’s being slightly scratched, he still manged to get 25 times the coins’ actual currency value.
The dad-of-one, from Sheffield, said: “Some people get these sorts of coins as presents, and they decide to spend them not realising how much they’re worth.
“The instruction from my dad was to sell it.
“He had a few coins he had collected and he said not to sit on them all.
“I knew it would be worth some money but I had my doubts as I knew it had been circulated slightly, it wasn’t brand new.”
Listing the coin on Facebook, Rob was contacted by a fanatic wanting to build a collection for his kids.
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Rob said: “I did a deal with him for £1,250 and I thought ‘Bloody hell! I’ve done alright there.’
“I wanted to sell to him as I got talking to him on the phone and he was sending me pictures of his collection and he was only collecting really rare coins.
“He explained to me that he wasn’t buying to sell, purely to build the collection and then pass it on to his kids when they got older – and I could hear his kids in the background.
“He wasn’t trying to get it for cheap…he was a genuine guy.”
Rob has since taken his partner and son to Amsterdam with the money.
The 50ps were put into circulation during the 2012 games but taken out once they had finished, “making them scarce and hard to find”.
Much of the special edition Olympic coins increase in value each year.
