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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Levi Winchester

Rare 'error' £1 coin sells for £250 on eBay after sending collectors into meltdown

A £1 coin has sold for £255 on eBay because of a huge error in its design.

The coin appears to have been struck twice on both sides, so some of the writing appears twice or has dropped off.

The Queen’s head also isn't in the centre of the change, as she is with all other coins.

When you flip the coin over, you can see the other side, which has the English rose, Welsh leek, Scottish thistle and Northern Irish shamrock "Nations of the Crown" design, has also been minted incorrectly.

The error coin, which was minted in 2018, sold for a whopping £253 after attracting 28 bids on eBay, with the auction ending on May 3.

Have you sold a rare coin for a mint? Let us know: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk

The minting error means the wording looks like it has been printed twice (eBay)
The imperfection also appears on the back of the £1 (eBay)

It was a new 12-sided £1 coin which replaced the old “round pound” back in 2017.

Error coins are particularly valuable to collectors as they could be a one-off, or one of only a handful in existence.

But always be aware of fakes being sold on eBay so you don’t get scammed out of money for a coin that isn’t real.

You can get coins verified by the Royal Mint to check they're the real deal.

It is hard for the Royal Mint to say exactly how many error coins could be in circulation, as it manufactures between three million and four million coins a day.

But accidents do happen, so it's worth keeping an eye out in your spare change for anything unusual.

You'll typically be looking for something that doesn't look quite right, or any imperfections in a design.

Last week we reported how an expert said a HG Wells £2 coin could be worth up to £1,000 due to a minting error.

What makes this particular version of the 2021 coin special is that it has a thicker yellow ring, wider than a normal £2.

Change checking website Coin Hunter explains the mistake in design could have been caused by an incorrect blank coin being struck with too much pressure.

One of its experts, Colin Bellamy, says it could be worth £1,000 in the right hands - but it does depend on how much someone is willing to pay for it.

Think you may be sitting on a fortune? See our guide on rare 50p coins and valuable money, here.

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