July 4th 2023.
Ben Mason from Royton was left gobsmacked when he was handed a rare £2 coin at his local shop last October. He knew he had something special on his hands and was determined to make the most of it.
The coin was part of a special mintage of British Isles coins released in 2011 to commemorate the fourth Commonwealth Youth Games, hosted on the Isle of Man. It features the official mascot of the games, Tosha the Cat, as well as the logo of the games.
Ben decided to list the coin on eBay and put it up for auction with a starting price of £100. To his surprise, the bids kept going up and up until the last hour, when it sold for £236.74. After fees, Ben was left with £206 - more than he could have imagined!
He said: “I was over the moon when I found it – absolutely ecstatic. It’s been hard recently, not just for me but for everyone with the cost-of-living crisis. It helped massively with energy bills and food as I’m a father of four. I just couldn’t believe that a coin could be worth so much.”
Ben is now encouraging others to have a sift through their change. He said: “Every time I get change, I’m always checking them now because you just never know and it’s easy to check. Just a simple search on eBay and see what’s the lowest price it’s going for and if there’s a profit to be made then I’ll sell again. Check your coins as you could have spare change in your back pockets. You could literally be sat on a fortune without even realising.”
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