A man has urged people to check their change after selling a rare £2 coin for more than £200. Ben Mason received a rare Tosha Cat £2 coin in his change from a £5 note whilst at a shop.
The coin is one of the Isle of Man's most sought-after coins, as it was minted to commemorate the fourth Commonwealth Youth Games on behalf of the Isle of Man Treasury. This adds to its rarity due to the typically low mintage figure of British Isles coins.
After noticing the image of a cat on the coin, Ben decided to do some research and discovered how much it was worth. Ben told the Manchester Evening News: "When I saw that it had a cat on the coin I looked at the coin in more detail to find it was called Tosha Cat so as I've never seen it before I decided to Google search it, only then to find that it was a rare Isle of Man coin.
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"Which then made me look on eBay to see what they was selling for and to my surprise they were all selling way over £200." He listed the coin on eBay and at first he didn't think it was going to sell.
However, once there was only an hour left people began bidding, with bids starting at £100. By the end of the auction, Ben's Tosha Cat coin sold for a total of £236.74.
Speaking of his experience, Ben said: "I was extremely happy especially with the cost of living, just like most families, as I'm a dad of 4 it's been a struggle and to swap a £2 and have it sell for £236.74, making me a profit of £204 (eBay took £30 for their percentage), I was over the moon."
He shared the news on his TikTok page, benmason_official_2, and showed what other sellers are listing the same coin for on eBay, with one seller listing it at £449.95. Ben plans to use the profit he made on the coin for his children and towards food and energy bills, highlighting that it has alleviated some of the stress from the cost of living crisis.
He is now urging others to make some extra cash by advising people to look out for rare coins, and to see if it has any defects. He added: "I check every pictured coin, for example, the Tosha Cat £2 having a cat on it, some aren't worth anything but there are many coin collectors out there, some serious ones, and you never know you could be sat on some serious cash.
"My advice would be check your coin, check the date, and then check it out on eBay and see what others are selling it for, if it's high then try your luck and list it." At the time of writing the lowest listing for the coin on eBay was £299.
