Before I started stacking Silver and precious metals I was collecting coins from circulation. It's not as much fun in the UK compared to the USA because all Silver coins have been removed from the currency system. We can however collect the many commemorative designs and error coins of which there are many! has been showing off some of his cupro-nickel so I thought I'd give him some support. The other day I checked my pocket change and found a very rare Error coin. An undated 20pence coin known as a 'mule'. The coin on the Left is the Mule.
The error occurred when they went to change the date from the front to the back of the coin and accidently used the wrong pairing of dies. It is estimated that between 50-200 thousand were released into circulation before the mistake was realised.
They were minted in 2008 and were quickly snapped up by collectors who cherry picked them from bank bags. I have searched thousands of coins and had given up hope of finding one but perseverance pays off They were fetching £100 in mint condition so 500x face value. Prices have fallen due to bad Chinese fakes on eBay, but this one is Real!
This is a picture from the official Royal Mint website showing the 3 variations of the 2008 coin. My coin had gunk all over it so I cleaned it off with a toothpick and then gave it a light polish with a silver polishing cloth. I know it's bad but there aren't many options for cleaning cupro-nickel and it really needed it. It looks a lot better than it did before.
I have lots of error coins that I will show in upcoming posts. Most of them have little value but they are interesting. I might sell this and convert the profit into silver.