'Rare' Shakespeare £2 coins are selling for hundreds of pounds on eBay, after it emerged a batch of them may feature minting errors that make them valuable.
In the past month, coin collectors have been flogging what appear to be rare £2 Shakespeare error coins for hundreds of pounds on the online marketplace.
It's part of a collection of three Shakespeare £2 coins dubbed Tragedies, Comedies, and Histories that were issued by the Royal Mint in 2016 to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Britain's legendary playwright.
The coin with the supposed error on it is the Tragedies £2, which features a skull and rose motif in a nod to William Shakespeare's works on tragic love affairs.
It should have "WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS MAN" inscribed on the side of the coin, which is a line from Hamlet, but coin collectors have noticed some seem to have the wrong wording.
They instead read "FOR KING AND COUNTRY", which is the phrase that's supposed to be on the Royal Mint's First World War £2 issued in 2016 to commemorate the role of the army in WWI.
A spokesperson for The Royal Mint told The Sun : "We are investigating the alleged error."
It's unclear if the First World War £2 wrongly contains the quote from Hamlet on its inscription.
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To date, 4,615,000 of the Tragedies coins have gone into circulation so there's a strong chance you may may find one in your spare change.
The most an error version of the Tragedies £2 has gone for recently on eBay is £230, plus £1.83 postage, after receiving 30 bids on August 13.
This week, another sold for £98.28, plus £3.75 postage, after notching up 12 bids, and one went for £51, plus 76p postage on Wednesday, after racking up 14 bids.
I have one of these coins - will it sell for a fortune?
Of course, even if one of these coins turns up in your change and you decide to list it online, it's not guaranteed to sell for the same price.
That's because the number of 'error' coins currently in circulation is unknown.
If you think you have a valuable coin, the best thing to do is ask the Royal Mint to check that it's genuine.
While it won't be able to tell you how valuable it is, it can provide you with a letter to confirm its authenticity.
Think you may be sitting on a fortune? See our guide on rare 50p coins and valuable money, here.
