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Is that 20p worth £50?

Sarah Coles
Jun 29th 2009 at 6:00AM

Filed under: Weird and Wonderful

How much could that handful of change be worth, a couple of quid?

Nope, according to reports today, it could be worth a fortune, as the Royal Mint has just announced it has made some mistakes on some 20p pieces, which could make them very valuable indeed.

So what are you looking for, and what can you do to cash in?

It seems that earlier this year the mint changed designs. The date has always been on the tails side of the coin, but to go with the new design, it was meant to move onto the heads side. A glitch in the system meant this didn't happen, so the mint made somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 of these coins without a date stamped on it at all.

So get your coins out, and check for any without a date.

If you have one of the rare ones, you're in the money.

At the moment a private coin company called the Royal Mint Office is offering to buy them for £50. If you want to sell, just visit www.undated20p.com and register.

Alternatively, you can hang onto it. According to the experts this could be worth as much as £200 in ten year's time, so keep it somewhere safe, and it could be a handy little nest egg in future.

Personally I'd hang onto it. £50 is a lot to pass up, but it's quite a quirky thing to own, and the idea of it appreciating in value is pretty cool too.

Mind you, speaking as one of the millions of people who held onto old 1/2 pence pieces and 5ps, just in case they are ever worth anything (highly unlikely), I have a bit of a history of hopeful coin hoarding.

Now if you're excuse me, I'm off to ransack the house for loose change.

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