2015 BRITANNIA £2 DIE ROTATION ERROR

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V20 2017 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 20, Number 4, January 22, 2017, Article 31

Queen Elizabeth II is a bit out of sorts on this error two pound coin that hit the news this week. The die for the bimetallic piece rotated, giving these examples an odd die alignment. Here's an article from the Mirror. -Editor

If you've a £2 coin in your wallet, you could be sitting on a small fortune, thanks to a newly discovered printing error on thousands of coins in circulation.

Coin experts revealed that a number of 2015 Britannia £2 coins currently being used include a striking error - which could make them valuable to collectors.

The coins show the Queen’s head rotated clockwise by around 150 degrees - but, with only 650,000 in circulation, and just a few thousand 'upside down', you're going to have to dig deep to find a special one.

The Royal Mint said the misalignment was "almost certainly the result of one of the dies working loose and rotating during the striking process".

The government body also said the £2 Britannia coin is one of the most scarce circulating £2 coins ever minted – it is third equal in the all-time low mintage charts.

According to experts at Change Checker there are around 3,250 of the 'inverted' £2 coins in circulation - that's around one in 200.

Yasmin Britton, of Change Checker, said: "If the inverted effigy is a consequence of the die slipping during the striking process, it is possible that there may be other variations where the Queen's head is less or more misaligned as the die has worked its way out of position."

It would be an interesting study to assemble a group of these errors and note the die alignment; as the article states, there could exist examples with varying degrees of rotation. -Editor

To read the complete article, see:
How much are the coins worth? (www.mirror.co.uk/money/glaring-error-means-rare-2-9645738)

Wayne Homren, Editor