A RARE £2 coin with a minting error on it has sold for £150 on eBay after collectors battled it out to bag it.
The coin has been left looking more like a fried egg you’d see in a fry up rather than something you’d spot in your spare change.
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The core of the coin is not aligned, meaning it has run out into the outer rim.
The seller describes the coin as being “pressed incorrectly”, which could explain the mistake.
Error coins like this can often go for far more than their face value, because there are extremely limited number of them in circulation.
It means that they tend to be more in demand with collectors – meaning these sorts of coins tend to be both both rare and scarce.
Many will pay hundreds of pounds to add an error coin to their collection – and the winning bidder of this coin paid £150 for it earlier this month when the online auction.
A £1 coin similar to this sold for even more recently – it looked like a fried egg too and went for £267 on eBay.
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How to spot an error coin in your spare change
The Royal Mint manufactures between three million and four million coins a day, so you can see why sometimes things go wrong.
But before shelling out any money for an error coin you’ve spotted on eBay, make sure you check its not a fake first.
The best way to find out if you have an error coin is to send it to the Royal Mint museum, which will analyse it and see if it is a result of a genuine minting error or not.
So ask the seller if they’ve sent their coin off to be examined.
Change experts like Coin Hunter or Change Checker will help you verify if it’s real too, and they can help place a value on the coin.
Scroll through other eBay listings to get a general idea of how much collectors are willing to pay too.
But experts warn that a number of fake coins often end up in circulation, make sure you don’t get ripped off online.
Usually you can see if something is genuine by the number of bidders who were willing to stake their claim on it.
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