Around a quarter of a million of these coins were printed with a sought after error in 2008.
An expert has urged Brits to “stop spending” a certain coin without checking it, as they could be worth far more than their face value. This specific piece bears an error, making it valued at around £60 each.
The coin in question was minted in 2008. However, thousands were made with an error that is highly sought after by collectors.
This error means that the affected coins display no date on them. An expert known online as the Coin Collecting Wizard explained: “Stop spending your 20p coins without checking them first because one from 2008 with no date is worth £60.”
You would usually find the date of a 2008 20p coin on the reverse, or tails, side of the coin. He continued: “Normally, the date on a 20p is on the reverse right under the crown.
“But in 2008, something strange happened. A small number of 20ps were minted with a new obverse – the shield side paired with the old reverse Tudor rose but neither side has a date.
“This is what we call a mule error. When mismatched dies are used and this one slipped into circulation without anyone noticing.”
While these coins are “rare” they’re not “impossible to find”, the expert said. “Normally, 20p coins have the date on the back, but if you check and there’s no date on either side, you might be holding the rare one,” he said.
“These undated 20ps are rare but not impossible to find in average condition. They go for £60 plus. People are still finding them in their change even 15 years later.”
On its website, the Royal Mint says: “In November 2008, a number of 20p coins were incorrectly minted, resulting in the coins being undated. This problem affected less than 250,000 coins of the 136 million 20p pieces minted in 2008-09 and was due to the previous obverse (the ‘heads’ side) being used with the new reverse (the ‘tails’ side) design, meaning the year of issue did not feature at all.
“These coins remain legal tender and still have a face value of 20p.” At the time of reporting, a number of the 2008 error 20p coins were listed on eBay with prices starting at £73.