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This 20p Error Coin Has Sold For Almost £60 On eBay

Joanna Freedman

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This 20p Error Coin Has Sold For Almost £60 On eBay

Featured Image Credit: Flickr

A 20p coin has sold for £59 on eBay because it was minted with a mistake on it.

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The silver coin might look like a regular 20p to many, but on closer inspection it's part of a batch that was put into circulation without the year that it was made stamped onto it, by accident.

The blunder happened back in 2009, when the dates on all coins were moved from the tail side to the head side during a redesign by Matthew Dent.

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At the time, The Royal Mint accidentally minted one batch of 20ps with the old design on the heads, meaning that none of them have a date on them.

The 20p coin has no date on it (Credit: eBay)
The 20p coin has no date on it (Credit: eBay)

They didn't notice the mistake until 250,000 of the "mule" coins were in circulation - meaning a whole string of people will likely have them in their purses and have no idea they're minted wrongly.

It's exceptionally rare for coins without a date on to enter circulation. In fact, it's been over 300 years since they last did - in 1672 during the reign of King Charles II.

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This rarity makes the 20p coin exceptionally valuable to any coin collector, and ultimately means they're likely to pick up a tidy sum if you have one and chose to sell it on.

However, rather conservatively, the 20p was originally listed with a starting bid of just 99p.

The 20p coin sold for £59 (Credit: eBay)
The 20p coin sold for £59 (Credit: eBay)

It didn't take long for offers to come flying in, though, and soon there were 28 bids, and the little coin had sold for £59.

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While the coin doesn't come with official verification from the Royal Mint to prove that it is genuine, it doesn't seem to have stopped collectors taking a punt and shelling out for it.

Coins from the same dateless batch have previously sold for this price too, give or take £10.

The Royal Mint makes within the region of four million coins a day, so it shouldn't be surprising that mistakes do happen.

People are selling coins from the same batch on eBay for a similar price (Credit: eBay)
People are selling coins from the same batch on eBay for a similar price (Credit: eBay)
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To find out if any of your 20ps are worth the same, check to see if the date is correctly placed along the outer edge of your coin.

It should be on the left hand side of the 20p, before the inscription: "Elizabeth II . dei . gra . reg . fid . def".

If you can't spot it then also check the tails side - where the date should sit in the upper third of the coin, and feature two numbers either side of the rose.

Still no date? Then you're very likely in luck. However, if you want to be really sure then we advise getting it checked by The Royal Mint.

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Time to raid the piggy bank, we think!

Topics: News, Money

Joanna Freedman
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