RARE! One of a Kind! Multiple Errors! Perfect Investment!
In the past week I have had calls and emails from 9 different people wanting to sell their rare error coins. I'm always interested in genuine error coins as they are often genuine, one of a kind, pieces. Below is a picture of some error coins from my collection.
Each of these has been verified by The Royal Mint and you don't see them often.
Anyway, I digress, back to the question. Do you buy error coins? The answer is yes, but I always follow up with a question, "Is it a £2 coin?". The answer is usually yes, and my heart sinks a little, here we go again.
Firstly, what is an error, a variation, or normal manufacturing tolerances.
Error: An unintentional mistake. In the pictures above the two pence pieces were minted on the wrong planchet (blank) so all the design didn't come out. The 5 pence on the right was again struck on the wrong planchet. The five pence on the left has a couple of issues. The first is the collar that contains the blank wasn't in place which is why it spreads, the reason for this is probably to do with the "clipped planchet" preventing it. This clipping meant some metal was missing from where the design should be. There are quite a few other types of errors out there as well. The main qualifiers are that they must be obvious and unique or near to it.
Variation/Variety: Something that might not have been an intentional part of the design, but ended up being on several coins.
Both of these coins are varieties. They are on the rarer end of the variety scale as there aren't that many examples. Both of these are as a result of the person laying out the dies that strike the coin. On the left (shilling), they stamped the first I of Victoria on and angle and reapplied it at the correct angle hoping it would do. I didn't. Some of these made it in to circulation and as you can see, for some time before being spotted. The Penny is the same kind of story. The N of ONE was applied at 90 degrees to how it should have been and then re-applied. This is known as an N over inverted N or "N over Z". These are not errors, but varieties. The same as the 2008 20 pence without a date.
Manufacturing Tolerances: This is where most of the £2 coins (practically all) sit. The most common ones?
There isn't a right way up for the writing on the edge. This is straight from The Royal Mint's website. It's a normal manufacturing tolerance. If you look at a large enough sample of the same coin, you'll find it's about 50:50.
Off centre middle bits don't count unless they are Waaayyyyyy off. I'm talking a couple of millimetres at least. True errors are the ones that look like a comic book fried egg with the yolk to one side. In all honesty it's MUCH rarer to find one centred than off centre. To understand how and why this is, you need to understand how these are made. Imagine balancing a tic tac of nickel inside a brass ring and squashing it between the heads and tails dies, then expecting it to be bang in the centre, it won't be. Now imagine that machine knocking these out by the million, or several million.
If you don't believe me, go on to eBay and search for "Error £2". Just now there are in excess of 62,000 search results, hardly rare. Now search for "N over Z penny", 11 results and 9 of them are some sort of car part, so only 3 and one isn't correct. Try again for dateless 20 pence, 6 results (and they reckon there was over 200,00 of these made). I did try several ways of doing this to get the most results and 23 was the highest.
If you want to see some genuine £2 coin errors, have a look at this post on ChangeChecker where there are some examples of more recent ones.
In summary;
Unless it's obvious, it's probably not an error.
There isn't a right way up for the writing.
Errors with bits missing are the most commonly seen, usually related to someone grinding something off.
£5,000+ is not a sensible price for a genuine error £2 coin. Most genuine errors are much less.
I am very unlikely to fund your retirement/holiday/house purchase by buying a £2 coin.
If you're wanting to sell an error £2, do your research as to whether it is or not. Ebay and Etsy are not suitable resources, coin dealers and auctions with a track record in quality coins are. If you are sure it's an error, contact The Royal Mint to verify it. f it's not a genuine error, I'm not likely to pay more than £2 for it, unless it's a lower mintage and/or in exceptional condition.
If you want to buy one as an investment, firstly, don't. Coins are to be enjoyed by collectors. Every coin bought as an investment denies a collector from filling a gap and sharing information with other collectors. If you want to buy one because you have a genuine interest, buy from a genuine dealer. Do not buy from fuzzy online pictures with vague descriptions of hard to see errors on eBay or Etsy.
One of my favourite pastimes is to report non-genuine error listings to eBay and Etsy. They ignore me, but if you want to join in the fun, please do.
Best wishes,