A lucky window cleaner has hit the jackpot after landing himself a rare new £1 coin thought to be worth an incredible of £3,000.
Coin collector, Richard Bird, from Hull found the valuable 12-sided coin in June – which the Royal Mint has now confirmed is genuine and in fact ‘faulty’.
It features 2016 on one side, and 2017 in micro-inscriptions around the edge of the reverse – a result of a series of printing errors during production, the Hull Daily Mail reports.
The new £1 coins , which entered circulation back in March, all feature a ‘counterfeit proof’ hologram, which flickers between a ‘£’ symbol to the number ‘1’, under different lights. They’re dated just once, with the year of production engraved to the left of the Queen’s head.
Since his discovery, Richard has had the coin valued and has been advised it could be worth around £3,000.
The collector said he now plans to sell the coin on, rather than add it to his collection which he claims is worth around £15,000.
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The coin features ‘2016’ on one side, and ‘2017’ in micro-inscriptions around the edge of the reverse(Image: Hull Daily Mail / SWNS)
“It’s been confirmed that it is what I thought it was. The people from the Royal Mint have seen it and saw it as a genuine and are now investigating how it got into circulation.
“A couple of others have claimed to have similar coins, but according to blog Changechecker no-one else has proved it yet.
“After it was verified I was then able to get it valued, and I was told it could be worth about £3,000.
“I’ve got a collection which I think is worth about £15,000. I’d love to do it professionally, but I think it’s a nice side project to do alongside the window cleaning.”
Mr Bird said there are bound to be other coins with the same fault in circulation, which could be worth big sums for anyone who can find them.
The Royal Mint said the batch of ‘faulty’ coins had been withdrawn from circulation – but one slipped through the net(Image: Hull Daily Mail / SWNS.com)
“I just check all my coins I circulate and spotted the mistake,” he said.
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“Surely it can’t be the only one like it. They’ve made the fault so there must be more like it, but people just have to spot it.
“I think I will sell it. I mainly got into collecting so I could get commemorative stuff that my daughter would be able to keep.
“After it was verified I was then able to get it valued, and I was told it could be worth about £3,000″(Image: Hull Daily Mail / SWNS.com)
“Last year I bought some Beatrix Potter collection coins for around £60 each. The Peter Rabbit one is already selling for £550.
“They are good long term investments, but I think I will probably just cash in on this at some point. I will probably auction it off with a £3,000 reserve.”
In a letter to Richard, the Royal Mint said it’s now “investigating how the coin got into the public domain”(Image: Hull Daily Mail / SWNS.com)
The Royal Mint responded to Mr Bird confirming his coin was a genuine fault, although they believed all of the batch containing the fault were removed from circulation.
In a letter, the Assistant Curator at the Royal Mint said: “The Royal Mint produces around five billion coins each year and we have strict quality controls in place.
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“Our robust quality checks were successful in highlighting a fault in a small batch of coins. These coins were removed before they entered circulation and, therefore, we are investigating how this coin got into the public domain.
“We are committed to producing a consistently high standard of coins and thank you for bringing this our attention.”
