A RARE silver 2p coin is expected to fetch 20,000 times its face value at auction after being found in a piggy bank.
The 1985 coin was cast in the wrong metal, stealing the signature silver sheen traditionally associated with five or ten pence coins.
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After being found at a piggy bank in the late 1990s, the lucky find was expected to sell for up to £400.
It went under the hammer at RWB Auctions in Royal Wootton Bassett at 11am on April 22.
Most of these mess-ups are caught well before circulation, meaning those which do reach the streets are highly valuable.
Unlike other 2p coins, it’s made from cupronickel, a metal alloy normally used for coins of larger values, such as 10 pence coins.
Coin expert and YouTuber Christopher Collects, who works at The Britannia Company, described how the unusual coin may have been made.
He explained how the wrong value must have been struck on the wrong disc.
He added: “So somehow a cupronickel silvery-looking blank has managed to get into one of the striking machines and has filtered into the machine whilst they were striking two pence coins.
“There’s this great big metal bin that’s full of all these blanks – because they’re not a coin until they’ve been struck – and they just lift them up and tip them into a hopper.
“It all gets fed into the machine, and so one of these blanks has managed to get stuck in the machinery and has then dislodged while they’re striking two-pence coins.
“They can’t check every single one, so normally they would grab a handful and check them over, and it’s obviously not been in the handful of coins that they’ve pulled out to check.”
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He continued: “With modern quality control processes, most mistakes of this kind are identified quickly, but it is clear that a small number of 2p error coins were released into circulation in 1985.“
The copper expert says it’s “anybody’s guess” how many of the silver 2p coins are in circulation, but pointed out “if you don’t look, you won’t find.”
He added: “This just sort of highlights the kind of treasure that you can find in your change, in your pocket, in your money jars.”
Basically, check your piggy bank, folks, as your old school 2ps might earn you a pretty payday.
The Royal Mint produce 2 billion coins a year, but modern checking has made errors rarer, and therefore, fluke faulty coins more valuable.
The coin sports a crowned portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II by artist Raphael Maklouf, which was used on British currency between 1985 and 1997.
On the flip side, the iconography of the Prince of Wales, complete with ostrich plumes perched on a coronet engraved.
