Rare ‘fried egg’ £1 error coin sells for £112 on eBay – is your spare change worth a mint?
A RARE £1 coin has sold on eBay for £112 after a minting error left it looking like a "fried egg".
It sold for more than 100 times its original value thanks to its unusual look.
The 12-sided coin, which launched in 2017, is made with two metal rings - the outside is made from nickel-brass, while the inside is nickel plated brass alloy.
The inner circle is supposed to fit perfectly in the centre of the coin but this particular £1 has been mis-struck.
Rather than being circular, the silver-coloured part of the coin is actually oblong and bleeds into the outer ring on the tails side.
As a result, it's caused the outer ring to bleed into the middle on the other side of the coin, cutting it close to the Queen's nose.
This kind of minting error is known as the "fried egg" among collectors because of its similarity to the breakfast favourite.
Coins that have been made with mistakes on them are called "error coins" and can be really valuable to the right buyer.
The Royal Mint manufactures between three million and four million coins a day, so you can see why sometimes things go wrong in the making process.
It's pretty rare if error coins make it into circulation, which makes them very attractive to collectors.
This particular coin is dated 2019 and was listed on the auction site at the end of January for £100.
It only attracted two bidders though which pushed the price up slightly to £112.
The circulated coin fetched quite a high sum, even for an error coin of this kind.
A similar error £1 coin, also minted in the fried egg fashion, dated 2016 sold for £60 last month, after attracting eight bids.
What to do if you've got a rare coin
FIRSTLY, you need to make sure the coin is legit and not counterfeit. The Royal Mint is unable to value a coin but it can confirm whether it is real or not.
They will usually supply you with a letter to confirm this. Once you’ve found out whether the coin is real or not, you have a number of options - either selling it through a coin dealer, at auction or on eBay.
If you want to sell the coin you’ve found in your spare change on eBay then you need to know the risks.
Remember to set a minimum price that is higher or at the very least equal to the face value of the coin.
Even if your coin “sells” on eBay for a high price there’s no guarantee that the buyer will cough out.
It its terms and conditions, the auction website states that bidders enter a “legally binding contract to purchase an item”, but there’s no way to enforce this rule in reality.
For more information about what to do if you've found a rare coin, read our guide.
The new £1 coins are supposed to be the "most secure in the world" but some of them have loose centres, which could make them even more valuable to a collector.
Other minting mistakes have been found with the coin too - one seller made £205 after spotting one that had the new £1 design that had accidentally been minted on an old £1 coin base.
If you find an error coin in your change and you want to sell it, you should start by checking on eBay to see how much similar coins have recently sold for.
It’s easy for someone to list a coin for thousands of pounds but the “completed” listings will give you a more realistic idea of sold prices.
Also remember to factor in listing fees before deciding whether to sell the coin.
For specialist coins, or ones that are much older and have a higher value, speak to an expert. Try a valuation service such as .
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It's not the only error coin that could be worth a small fortune. We've put together a guide to the most valuable ones that might pop up in your change.
One of the rarest and most valuable error coins is the Olympic swimming 50p that was accidentally made with lines covering the athlete. These can fetch as much as £590 online.
A rare silver 2p error coins was recently snapped up on eBay for an impressive £301.