Rare 1994 £2 coin sells for £115 on eBay – do you have one in your wallet?

A RARE £2 coin from 1994 has sold for £115 on eBay – find one in your own change and you could be quids in too.

The coin sold for exactly £114.75 on November 8, and it’s a £2 that’s very hard for collectors to get their hands on as it was only made to be a “practice-like” design.

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That only makes them want to spend more money on it though.

This coin managed to sell for 57 times the value of its actual denomination when one collector snapped it up after the three day auction.

The reverse design of the trial £2 coin shows the Mayflower ship, and of course The Queen is featured on the obverse.

But coin experts at Change Checker have dubbed it “the coin that never was“.

That’s because the coin design was never officially released into circulation.

But of the copies that have passed through hands, a hiked value has been placed on many.

It wasn’t released into the change of the public because it was the very first version of the modern bi-metallic £2 coin we see today, that was struck back in 1994.

It was issued as a trial piece, before more familiar coins that we know were produced a few years later in 1997 – that means the 1994 coin was never actually legal tender.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not impossible for the coin to fall into people’s change.

There isn’t an exact mintage number for these coins as they weren’t produced as legal tender but there were just over 4,500 presentation packs issued for commemorative value according to Change Checker.

How to spot one in your own change

If you spot a unique coin in your own change, you could find yourself quids-in.

Usually a commemorative style coin will often sell in the hundreds, but your best bet is to bank on a rare coin with a low mintage.

On the opposite end, rare error coins can fetch a pretty penny for their faults as well – the simple mistakes made in the minting process can sometimes rocket their value.

But you should always be cautious of fakes and some crooks may try to con you out of your money for botched copies..

Keep in mind that an eBay buyer could pull out, which means the coin won’t have sold for the price it appears to have either.

If you want a better idea of the coins value, compare how other rare coins have sold on eBay as a good reference, or use experts like Coin Hunter to check over your change and see how much it could be worth.

You could also get any rarities you find verified by The Royal Mint to help reassure buyers that they’re paying for the real deal – you may even be able to hike up the price a bit if you’re selling it on.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk