Yahoo Finance Extremely rare $2 coin selling for up to $5,950
Rare Australian collector’s coins are skyrocketing in value after unlikely errors are uncovered.
While some coins you get in the change from the supermarket can be worth thousands of dollars, collectors are being rewarded for buying uncirculated coins when finding minting mistakes that make them even more valuable.
This is the case with Australia’s 2020 Firefighter $2 coin, which was designed to pay tribute to those who battled the devastating 2019 bushfires.
A vivid orange ball of flames at the centre of the coin, which was meant to be between two firefighters, has ended up on the flipside in some cases - right on the late Queen Elizabeth II’s face.
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Just a handful of the errors were minted and sold to the general public through the Royal Australian Mint. They have sold for an impressive $5,950.
The error is called ‘bullseye’ and also occurred with the Australia 2019 $2 Police Remembrance coin and 2015 Lest We Forget Coloured $2 coin, which put blue and red target-like circles on the Queen’s face.
But remember, there’s also money to be made from your loose change.
A $1 coin minted in 2000 that contains a significant error made by the Royal Australian Mint has fetched up to $3000 online.
“A batch of $1 coins from the year 2000 had been mistakenly produced using the incorrect obverse die (the head side) and subsequently entered circulation,” Perth-based coin expert Joel Kandiah said on TikTok.
“Astonishingly, this error went unnoticed for a year or two.”
The mule was struck with the Australian 10c obverse die and imprinted the 1.4mm diameter difference.
“The smaller 10 cent die results in a pronounced double rim around the obverse of the coin, as clearly depicted in the accompanying image,” he said.
“Because of the smaller die’s usage, the obverse strike often appears off-centre, as does the double rim. Mules with well-centred obverse strikes typically command higher prices in the collector’s market.”
A double-header from 2007, which has the effigy of the Queen on both sides has also sold for up to $3,000.
The 1966 wavy-baseline 20 cent coin is also fetching up to $4,000. The bottom of the number ‘2’ on the tails side has an obvious wave to it, compared to standard coins, which have a straight base on the digit.
According to the Perth Mint, about 58.2 million 20 cent coins were struck dated 1966, but very few of them feature this wavy baseline.
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