These are the coins which will be worth big bucks in 2017… and how to make sure yours is the real deal

IF YOU’RE looking to cash in on your loose change, it could be time to take a look at your leftover summer holiday money.

There have already been 50p pieces which are worth £50, as well as that AK47 £5 note which sold for £80,100 on eBay.

So what are the coins which you should be checking your small change for in 2017? Well, according to one expert the euro is where it’s at.

“The coins selling for the highest prices are always very rare coins that are on the market once a decade,” coin expert and auctioneer at Ruud de Jong told The Sun Online.

“So when a high-end collector decides to sell his collection, some special coins will be on the market. But you never know until that moment.

“For modern coins, it’s easier to tell.

“When it comes to Euro coins, the 2007 Monaco 2 Euro with the image of Grace Kelly has become expensive in only a couple of years: the market price is about £1,100 (1200-1300 euros).”

It’s worth so much because it is one of the rarest 2 euro commemorative coin produced, with 20,001 minted to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Princess Grace of Monaco.

It’s not always easy to tell which coins are going to become popular each year.

In part it’s due to collectors who chose to sell their horde. Those sort of sales are a once in a decade thing, but of course it’s impossible to tell when they will happen.

There are some other rarities you can look out for though.

“Considering the UK, pre-Victorian coins are rare and collectors are willing to pay good prices for those, especially in the highest grades,” Ruud explained.

“And Scottish coins are highly collectable. If you find some in the attic, you’ll be lucky.”

The final batch of Scottish coins were minted on October 5 1709, consisting of silver shillings and half-crowns.

Their age and rarity is the reason they can net you so much.

Ancient gold coins from the Roman Empire are also doing big business, but it’s important to remember they aren’t all created equal.

According to Ruud, it’s all about quality. So while A-grade versions are fiercely popular, ones which are only mediocre don’t sell so well.

Which leads on to another important point, how to tell if you’re coin is the real deal.

“When buying coins, the devil is in the detail,” Ruud said.

“You have to perform some checks: is the weight of the coin correct? Are the material and measurements corresponding with the facts given in the catalogues? Are the details on the coin authentic?

“Make sure it isn’t cleaned, damaged, etc.

“Another important thing is to carefully look at the year, because a lot of forgeries are being created by changing the date of the coin from a ‘cheap’ year to an ‘expensive’ year.”

With the increased interest in rare coins it’s tempting to invest whenever the Royal Mint brings out a new commemorative one.

Unfortunately, there’s no way of telling if they’re going to be rare though.

“Themed coins are generally introduced in mintage figures that are often around 5 million pieces, and we never plan to reduce mintages purposely in order to make coins more collectable,” Jenny Manders of The Royal Mint explained.

“When, for some reason like reduced demand from cash centres for a particular coin, in a particular year there is a lower than normal mintage of a themed coin, it will make the coin rarer in circulation.

“The Royal Mint can never say that they are investment items – they are issued at the value of what it says on the coin.

“For 2017 coins, the plan is to mint as normal, so we won’t know if there are any ‘rarities’ until the end of the year once mintage figures are known.”

Got the coin bug?

This rare 2014 £2 coin is worth £350, while here are eight others which could be worth a small fortune.