Here’s the thing: the face value is still two pounds. You can spend it at the corner shop. Nobody will stop you. But collectors? They’re a different breed.
If you have a standard, circulated version, it’s worth about £2.50 to £5. That’s right—you might make a whole fifty pence profit. Exciting? Not really. But wait, there’s more.
The real money is in the errors. Oh, the glorious, glorious errors. Coins that were struck wrong become instant treasures. For example, a 2016 Fire of London coin with a missing edge inscription? That could fetch £50 to £100.
Then there’s the proof version. You know, the one that comes in a fancy box and glistens like a tiny mirror. Those can sell for £30 to £60—if you keep the packaging. But who keeps the packaging? Not me. I eat cereal from the box.
But let’s talk about the big money
Are you ready for this? Brace yourself. There’s a rumor—a persistent one—that a rare error version of the Fire of London coin sold for over £2,000. That’s not a typo. Two. Thousand. Pounds.
Elizabeth II 2016 proof Two-Pounds - Great Fire of London | European Coins
Was it a fluke? Maybe. But eBay is a weird place. One person’s mistake is another person’s retirement fund. I saw a listing recently where a coin with a double strike (the design is stamped twice) went for £1,500. Insane, right?
But don’t run to your piggy bank just yet. The odds of finding a rare error are like finding a unicorn in your garden. Possible? Sure. Likely? Not so much.
