uk rare undated 20p

shayne · July 15, 2009 8:04AM

i've been lucky and manage to find a rare 2008 undated 20p, in some spare change,,This coin was released in error by Royal Mint and is the first coin in 300 years to enter circulation without a date printed on both sides!!

This coin is described as "INCREDIBLY RARE" by Royal Mint themselves as there are only a very limited amount of coins like this in circulation as most were intercepted by banks and post offices on instruction by Royal Mint, so more rare than originally first thought!!

only problem now is i don't know what to do with it????

JohnTheJute · July 15, 2009 8:36AM

Hi Shayne, and welcome to the community.

Are you sure it was the Royal Mint who described the coin as incredibly rare? It sounds most unlike them. Most of the press releases I have seen have come from a company calling itself, confusingly, the London Mint Office. It is not connected with the Royal Mint.

BBC Report on Faulty 20 Pence Coin

With 50,000 to 200,000 of these in circulation it is not remotely rare. Once the hype has settled down, I would expect the coin to sell for £30 or so. Someone who specializes in error coins would be able to give a more authoritative estimate.

Cynically, I might suggest that the thing to do is to sell the coin on eB*y while there are still people who will pay several times this for such a coin.

Later,

John

wybrit · July 15, 2009 10:29PM

It is really fun to find those 20ps in change. I wish I was living there again so that I could join in the treasure hunt. Like JohnTheJute, I'd have to draw the line at spending more than £20-£30 on one of these, though. If you check out ebay, there are piles of auctions for these.

They are much like 1951 pennies - only 120,000 were minted, but I can find BU condition for sale at any given time, whether in B&M stores or online. They are worth £30-£40 today in UNC. In my two old price guides, both published in 1968, the same coin catalogued at £10 in one and £15 in the other. Bottom line - no real appreciation in over 40 years. Compare this to the 1908 shilling, which catalogued at only £10-11 in UNC in 1968. It's now worth more than £200!!!

As I have said before, my hat is off to anyone who finds and sells one for £100-£300 right now. Unfortunately, those who are buying will find out to their regret that their investment is apt to tank after the furor has died down - and it will die down.

lordmarcovan · July 16, 2009 9:48AM

<< <i>only problem now is i don't know what to do with it???? >>

Well, you could share some pictures with us!

shayne · July 17, 2009 8:15AM

what's the best site to upload your images onto? and i'll post some pics,,

shayne · July 18, 2009 4:45AM

ok so may 20p is up for sale on eb*y,, listing's number = 170359541301

SYRACUSIAN · July 19, 2009 11:06PM

Linkified.

Well, here's my take on them: because the Royal Mint is paying 250 times their face value for each, most of them will end up returned to the Mint, don't forget that regular folks have no idea about ebay etc, and the £50 is a very generous and well publicised reward from the Mint, with a lot of full or half page newspaper ads in British tabloids. I saw and kept one of them, (ad, not coin) when I was on holidays in a remote Greek island a few weeks ago, so imagine what happens in England...

The mintage is said to be 10000-50000. So, assuming that 90% of these will get returned within the next year - 18 months, the few ones that won't, will normally be valued at well above £50, perhaps not £350 as they sell now, but more than £50 IMO. Provided that they will still be in mint state that is, in which case it would have been preferrable that the coin of this thread had been placed in a 2x2 instead of resting on the owner's finger (because even the cleanest fingers in the world contain natural oils that alter the surface of the coin).

Regardless, it would be cool to own one of them, especially if found in change. Mechanical sealed rolls would be a good place to start looking.

Gazza · July 20, 2009 1:53AM

It's not the Royal Mint it's a company called the The London Mint Office who are a dodgy outfit that specialises in commerative junk. They started the who thing by appearing on breakfast TV news managing to get their web address in every other sentence. Mintage is estimated to be anything up to 250,000.

SYRACUSIAN · July 20, 2009 3:59AM

So the £50 reward is a hoax and a lame attempt to advertise? It can't be possible that the Royal Mint is not involved. Are you 100% sure?

I accidentally typed 100$ instead of 100% sure, I'm obsessed with this story.

Gazza · July 21, 2009 2:01AM

Given the current prices on ebay, still above £100, I'm sure they would give £50 for every one they could get their hands on.

http://www.londonmintoffice.org/shop/action/magazine/16849/Undated-20p-Quest.html

tbirde56 · July 21, 2009 3:28AM

Ebay examples

ASUtodd · July 21, 2009 3:46AM

Just a quick tip for your next video... wash your hands! Is that a booger on your fingernail? Also, rolling the coin around in your hands probably isn't the best way to attract a hard core coin enthusiast!

wybrit · July 21, 2009 4:09AM

That's the second 20p video I've seen where the seller puts his grubby finger- and thumbprints all over the coin! Blimey!!!

MacCrimmon · July 21, 2009 7:24AM

<< <i>That's the second 20p video I've seen where the seller puts his grubby finger- and thumbprints all over the coin! Blimey!!! >>

That seems to be a centuries-old SOP for Brit dealers/collectors.

Maybe it's a quirk in their gene pool, eh?

7Jaguars · July 21, 2009 12:05PM

Yes, drives me wild to see the same folks getting mad over slabs literally manhandling and drooling on the coins themselves. And I have seen any number of 19th C. copper and silver high grade coins (otherwise) spoiled by such handling.....Fine, don't go for slabs but keep your da-- fingers off of the coins surfaces and stop dropping them on the floor and counters....

Sylvestius · July 23, 2009 6:33AM

I got fed up of not being able to find one of these in change, i've been looking since January, I still am looking. Thankfully i had the good sense at the time to buy one from ebay just in case back in February for about £35 or there abouts. At the time i was kicking myself, if i had bought one a week earlier i could have had one for £16! But as it turns out seeing the amount they're going for now, i'm annoyed i didn't buy two or three for £35! ;-)

wybrit · July 23, 2009 12:40PM

Not to worry, the bubble will burst soon enough.

Sylvestius · July 23, 2009 8:25PM

Yeah I know the bubble will burst, pity cos if i'd bought more of them i could have sold a few myself for those sky high prices, all monnies recieves would then have gone towards another SLQ for my collection!

Hussulo · July 23, 2009 9:35PM

I don't know if this was an "honest" mistake, if not I take my hat off to them as a great way to get the general public more interested in coins. Hopefully it will spur on new collectors to the hobby.

It has also been great advertising for them which can't be bad.

uk rare undated 20p

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