A rare UK penny coin from 1920 is highly sought after by collectors – and there’s a tiny detail that makes it especially valuable
Brits have been urged to keep an eye out for a rare penny coin that could be worth thousands. The coin is highly sought after by collectors.
However, you need to look out for a tiny detail on the coin making it especially valuable. In a video posted to social media platform TikTok, an expert known as the Coin Collecting Wizard, explained what to look for on the 1920 coin.
The coin will feature an image of King George V on its obverse side, which is also known as the head side. On its reverse side is a depiction of Britannia holding a trident.
The expert said: “Oh my goodness gracious me. Have you got this penny from 1920?
“Look through your pennies for any from 1920 and you will need to look for this very small detail that makes this coin worth thousands of pounds.” He revealed that there are variations of this coin.
The version that is highly sought after is known as “obverse 3”. On this version of the coin there is a bigger gap between two letters on the obverse.
“What you are looking for is a United Kingdom penny dated 1920 with an obverse 3 rather than the usual obverse 2,” he continued. “The best way to spot this is looking at the letters A and B on the wording ‘GRA’ and ‘BRIT’.”
In the video he showed an example of this. “As you can see from my photo, the top one is the usual one that you will probably have, and the bottom one is the very rare obverse where the colon is further away from the letter B,” he said.
“Here you can see it more obvious when I put the lines down. So if you have the one with the wider spacing you have found a very rare coin worth thousands of pounds.
“I know this is such a hard detail to see, but use a microscope if needed as finding a 1920 penny with an obverse 3 design will make you rich.” According to experts at Coin Curiosity, there is only one known example of the obverse 3 coin and it can be found at the British Museum.
They commented: “In his authoritative work on British bronze coins Michael Freeman lists two different obverse dies as being used for both the 1920 and 1921 pennies and a total of five different penny obverse designs as having been used during the reign of George V, though subsequent research has revealed an even greater number. Successive changes to the obverse were attempts at reducing ghosting (the impression of one side’s design showing through on the other side) and 1920 and 1921 saw the combined use of both Freeman obverse 2 and Freeman obverse 3.
“The obverses can most easily be distinguished by the space between the words GRA and BRITT – on obverse 3 the space is wider than on obverse 2.”
