Portchester man finds 2p coin that could be worth more than £1,000

For David Allan, he could scarcely believe it as he took a closer inspection of a 2p coin and noticed it had in fact been dyed silver with a flat edge.

His disbelief was confounded when he discovered silver 2p coins had previously sold for £1,350.

Sceptical about the find, he brought the coin to Lee McGowan, of Hampshire Coins & Artefacts in Southsea, on Saturday, who believes the coin to be ‘99 per cent real.’

David said: ‘It jumped out to me straight away when I was looking through my change.

‘When I was researching how much it was potentially worth I was shocked to see that it was worth more than £1,000. That would be a pretty big return from a 2p coin!

‘It definitely came from a shop in Portsmouth but I would never be able to say which one.’

The 54-year-old from Portchester says he would sell the coin if it could be proved it was indeed not a fake.

He said: ‘I would definitely sell it but I need to be convinced that it is real.

‘I know that it has been checked over but I’m still waiting for that one person to tell me that it is a fake.’

Lee said: ‘When David first brought it over to me, I was quite shocked.

‘Coins are a passion for me and I’ve never seen something quite like this before so I did wonder is it real or fake.

‘Having looked further at it, I am 99 per cent sure it is real and it could be worth a lot of money.’

Lee had the coin checked over by a coin expert, who verified to him that he believed the coin was also real and not a fake.

Lee explained that the coin was made in error by The Royal Mint and is a ‘mule coin.’ The coin dealer explained: ‘This happens all the time but what’s rare is when the coins get out as you never know how many of them are out there and that’s what makes them worth so much.

‘Coins are churned out in their hundreds every second so of course there are going to be mistakes.

‘I hope what David has discovered here is really genuine as I have seen a lot of fake coins over the years, but this one really looks to be real.

‘Understandably, David really wants it to be real and for me, I’m convinced, but let’s see if it can be verified.’