A RARE coin strikes a small fortune for a seller on eBay all because both sides share the same design.
The listing went up on December 31 and was live for seven days, with the coin eventually selling for £100.
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The item was originally listed for £70 on December 31 2021, and increased by £30 on January 7 when the bidding ended.
Usually, one side of a coin will feature an artistic design or symbol, while the other often pictures the current monarch or leader.
That’s not the case for this 19 year old £2 coin which boasts the same design on both sides and was created by art teacher, Bruce Rushin, who won a competition open to the public to design the reverse of the coin.
The image shows the development of technology from the Iron Age to the Industrial Revolution.
But despite its unusual identical error, the coin only piqued the interest of one bidder, meaning a bidding war was off the table.
This is rare in itself, as some other coins on eBay have caused quite the grapple.
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How to spot a rare error coin
Watch out when looking at error coins on eBay, as there may be fakes floating about.
Pay attention to the amount of people bidding for a coin, as this could give you a good indication of whether or not the coin is legit or even of interest.
This isn’t always a sure-fire way to sniff out a scam, as legit coins can have low bids like in the case of this £2 copycat coin.
You could also simply ask the seller if they have sent the coin off to be examined.
If you’re feeling iffy about a rare coin that seems too good to be true and you can’t authenticate it, it’s best not to buy it.
Can I sell a rare coin?
Though rare coins are fascinating, it’s no surprise they exist when roughly three to four million coins are manufactured by The Royal Mint a day.
Error or not, rare coins are still classed as legal tender, and as they are circulated there’s a high chance you’ll own one yourself.
The slightly longer way to check whether your coins have genuine minting errors would be to send them to The Royal Mint Museum, which will analyse it for you and leave you without a doubt if you decide to list it.
If you can prove it’s authenticity, you may be able to sell it for even more.
If you so happen to check your purse and notice something odd about a coin, an easy way to check if it’s unusual is with a quick internet search.
You should research the coin using the date printed on it to find others of its kind and compare how they look.
If there are differences, you can hop on eBay to check if other sellers are listing any similar error coins for an idea of what’s desirable.
Alternatively, websites like Change Checker and Coin Hunter are also worth a surf to uncover which coins are currently highly sought after.
Also, The Royal Mint, which is the government-owned mint exclusively supplying the nations coinage, released mintage figures last year.
By looking at these, you can get a good indication of your coin’s desirability based on how many are in circulation.
The Sun spoke to coins expert Jon White of the Britannia Coin Company to discuss rare 50p Kew Gardens and how to spot fakes- you can find out if you have any in your pocket.
And it’s not just Kew Gardens 50ps that are stacking up a profit, check if you have any other rare 50ps that could be lying around.
Meanwhile, other error coins can bag you up to £3,100 – check if you could make yourself a small fortune.
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