This rare coin should be easily distinguishable due to an obvious minting error
Brits have been urged to keep an eye out for an obvious error on a 2p coin that could make it extremely valuable. This minting mistake means the piece could be worth as much as £750 to collectors.
In a video uploaded to social media platform TikTok, an expert known online as the Coin Collecting Wizard explained what you should be looking for. He told his more than 230,000 followers that an example of this coin recently sold for £750.
This “shocked” auction experts, he said. The content creator said: “The coin in question is a 2p coin from 1985 which has been struck on the wrong planchet.”
A planchet is a round metal disk, also known as a flan or blank, that is used as the starting material for a coin. These discs are then struck with dies to create the final coin design.
In the case of this coin, it was mistakenly struck on a planchet meant for 10p coins, giving the 2p a silver appearance. He continued: “The coin, which has gone under the hammer in Royal Wootten Bassett, was first found among loose change in a piggy bank in the late 1990s.
“The owner reportedly noticed that the coin was unusual as it was a silver colour unlike the standard bronze but kept it as a curiosity until they noticed a similar coin, go up for auction in 2025.” It was initially thought this coin would fetch around £300 to £400 at auction.
“The seller then got in touch with RWB Auctions, where experts predicted it could be worth £300 to £400. But the actual worth of the coin shocked even the most senior members of the auction house when it went under the hammer and sold for £750.”
Explaining more about the production of the coin, he added: “Testing has confirmed that the coin was mistakenly made from cupronickel – the same alloy used for 10p coins. It’s also believed that several more like this are still out there, so make sure you look out for any silver 2p coins.”
Coin expert and YouTuber Christopher Collects, who works at The Britannia Company, explained how the unusual coin may have been made. As reported by The Sun, he said: “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.
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“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.”
