Red-faced bosses at the Royal Mint today admitted producing a £2 – with a SPELLING MISTAKE.
The coin – made to mark the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder plot – has the words ‘Pemember the fifth of November’ engraved around the outer rim.
Eagle-eyed collector Albi Pinnion, 46, noticed the mistake after being handed a £2 coin in change at his local pub in Ousden, Suffolk.
Remarkably, the coin was produced in 2005 and the mistake has gone un-noticed for five years.
The misprinted currency has now become hot property among coin collectors and are selling for over £10 on eBay.
Mr Pinnion said: ”When looking at the coin I just happened to notice the incorrect spelling.
”It is not the sort of thing most people would go out of their way to check so that may be why it has taken so long for one to come to light.
”I originally emailed and wrote letters to the Royal Mint but they did not want to acknowledge the coin for some reason.
”I noticed on eBay that a few more of them have now been found.”
The Royal Mint has admitted the mistake but refused to disclose how many might be in circulation.
A spokesman said: ”It’s likely to be a consequence of the production process.
”It’s very, very infrequent that we issue coins with an error. We have quality control to detect any defects.”
Coin mint error coins are commonly the result of deterioration of the minting equipment, accidents or malfunctions.
In 2008 a batch of undated 20p appeared in circulation in the UK, some of which were sold for thousands of pounds each on internet auction sites.
Mr Pinnion discovered his first faulty £2 at The Fox pub in Ousden, Suffolk in June and has now amassed 20 of the coins.
He said: ”The Royal Mint issues around a coin a year with a fault. It’s common to have between 50,000 and 20,000 with a mistake.
”They offered £50 for every 20 pence piece returned to them so you can see why they don’t want to admit mistakes. If they were all returned it could have cost them 10 million pounds.
”I do check all the change I get everywhere I go, at the pub, supermarket, everywhere.
”I’ve been a collector since I was a boy and have my father’s collection too because he was an enthusiast.
”My favourite coins are of King Henry VIII from the sixteenth century because of their history.”
Three of the misprinted £2 coins, all baring the same mistake, were sold on December 28 on eBay for £41.
Bachelor Mr Pinnion has identified other faults with £2 coins in recent years.
In 1999 a version of the coin made for that year’s Rugby World Cup he found read 999 on the rim with the numeral one missing.
Another coin issued reads with the inscription ‘standing on the shoulder of gants’ with the final word missing an i in the word for what should be giants.
fantastic i collect all £2 with a picture on them, ive just found this 1 with incorrect spelling. I do have 4 of these the other 3 are correct.
i was looking at mine the other day and it had a C instead of a D in world cup so reads worlc cup
hi i found 3 £2 coins the other day one that should say giants said gants, another on that said giavts and another tht said s7anding instead ov standing, are these rare, thnx
”They [The Royal Mint] offered £50 for every 20 pence piece returned to them so you can see why they don’t want to admit mistakes”
Not true. The London Mint Office (LMO) offered £50 for one per household. The LMO have nothing to do with the Royal Mint; they are a coin marketing firm and the only thing they were interested in is not the mule 20p, but your name and address to put on a mailing list.
The tail on the letter R is quite small and can be obscured by the vertical lines that run across the edge of the coin. This also goes some way to explain why the I in giants is missing. And if you look at the technology £2 coin at the right angle, the R in shoulders also turns into a P to spell shouldeps.
Oh, and it’s one thing for something like this to sell on eBay for £stupidamount, it is quite another to be actually paid.
i have found a £2 coin with remember remember the 5th of november wrote on it but the dates are wrong on the coin its marked 1607 – 2007 but the 7s are printed the wrong way round, also the gunpowder plot was 1605, can any1 enlighten me either on a price or weather thats just how they were printed.
Looks like you too must have been having a bad spelling day when you sent in your message! The correct spelling – whether…not weather. Just saying!
im sorry Mr Pinnion but in my opinion that clearly is the letter ‘r’ on the side of your coin. not a ‘p’.
I have a 2012 two pound error the word THE spells TllL insted and the word shoulders spells 5houlders not sure the value tho
I recently found I have the same 1999 Rugby World Cup coin with the numeral one missing and want to see if it has any value to it. Does anyone know who I can contact?
I have Charles dickens coin queen has two faces. has anyone else got one
None of the £2 coins are rare or valuable as the rare is something which is less in quantity like 1933 one Penny(less than 10 in circulation)
As far £2 coin the gun powder version its a printing mistake and over 5million in value are in circulation thats 2.5 millions coins people whore are paying upto £40 are either starters or stupid who havnt done any research and paid well over the face value
The lowest amount of £2 coin in circulation is 2012 London to Rio hand over there around 65000 in circulation its only worth face value at the moment as no interest from collector has been shown some are on ebay for £10
I’ve found a £2 coin with Pemember PemembeP on it so is that just another mistake they have made
Iv found a two pound coin but the mistake is not the remember? It’s on the November.. it’s got novembep eny ideas on how much it would worth as can’t find other one like on the net
I have just found this coin did you find out how much it was worth
ive recently got a two pound coin in my change and the I is missing in giants can anyone out there let me know if its worth any thing many thanks
Has anyone else come across the Charles dickens £2 coin with mis-spelling. It should say Something Will Turn Up. But instead says Something WIIL turn up.
I have a Charles Dickens £2 coin as well and mine appears to have WIII but without the “T” bars across the tops and bottoms of the Is
If they are so valuable, how many would
Mr Pinnion be willing to buy at a price
of more than £2 each?
HH
I have a 2012 Charles Dickens 2 pound coin with 2 errors, the word Will actually says WIII and the the dots on the back going round the edge of the silver centre are incomplete around the lower part of the queens face, what’s it worth?
did you find out if your coin was worth anything my 2 pound coin alsohas a spelling mistake WIII
I have a 2 poubd coin and the date on the outta edge is printed upside down I have 3 the right way and two the wrong way are they rare and are they worth anything ?
I have a 1998 2pound coin and it’s printed back to front the queens head is on the other side of coin I have compared it to other 2pound coins same year and mine is odd it’s back to front
I have a rugby world cup one and it says 1999 bi
ut the 1 is barely visible it doesn’t mean it’s not there try checking it again
Hi I have A 2007 £2 coin..the dots around the coin are of the centre silver coin and the outer inscription is on upside down is it rare or not really..thanx
I have a 2009 Robert burns £2 coin with the writing around the edge upside down.also it looks like the crown is missing the dots around the queens head.is it worth anything.
I would suggest folk should go to the Royal Mint site to see and read just how these bi-metal coins are minted. You will then understand why so many of these coins can have minor errors on them. There are numerous £2 coins for sale on Ebay that allegedly have the inscription around the edge upside down. There is NO right way up for the inscription. The outer nickle-brass is inscribed before it falls into the press with the cupro-nickle centre. When doing so it can fall either way up,so there is NO right way up.
I found a 2pound coin with spelling error (stand ng on the shoulders of giants) there is a missing letter “i” in standing
Been researching and cannot find another like this??
If we carry on finding errors in our currency and inflating the value of all of those coins, we shall soon be left with a few perfect coins worth nothing more than their intrinsic value.
Could the errors be deliberate?
Just wondering.
Hi I have a 2 pound coin with the i missing in giants, so it reads g ants. Is there any worth to this coin?