A dad is quids in after selling a £2 coin he was given as change for more than £200. Ben Mason, 26, was handed the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games coin at his local shop last October.
He says he knew straight away that he had a rare piece on his hands. So the stay-at-home dad-of-four listed it on eBay - where it was snapped up for £236.74. That left Ben, from Royton, Greater Manchester, with £206 after fees - which he is delighted with.
He said: "I was over the moon when I found it - absolutely ecstatic. It's been hard recently, not just for me but for everyone with the cost of living crisis.
"It helped massively with energy bills and food as I'm a father of four. I just couldn't believe that a coin could be worth so much."
Ben chose to list his coin for auction at a lower price, in the hope he'd get a few bids.
He said: "I had it listed on eBay for auction as when I searched, I noticed everyone was selling as 'buy it now' for £200-plus. As no one had one on for auction I thought I'd take the opportunity to put it on as an auction starting for £100 bidding.
"But I also had a 'buy now' price for £350. Within two days I got my first bid of £190 and then there was nothing up until the last hour - where the battle started.
"To my surprise the last hour the bidding kept going up and up until time ran out and sold for £236.74. But because I used eBay, they take a percentage, so in total I got £206. That doesn't bother me - I technically swapped £2 for £206."
The coin was put into circulation in 2011 to commemorate the fourth Commonwealth Youth Games, hosted on the Isle of Man. It features the official mascot of the games, Tosha the Cat, as well as the logo of the games.
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According to the website Change Checker, mintage figures for British Isles coins are hard to track down. This means the true mintage figure for such coins is not widely known, so it can’t be said how rare they are - making them a collector's item. Ben is now encouraging others to have a sift through their change.
He said: "Every time I get change, I'm always checking them now because you just never know and it's easy to check. Just a simple search on eBay and see what's the lowest price it's going for and if there's a profit to be made then I'll sell again.
"Check your coins as you could have spare change in your back pockets. You could literally be sat on a fortune without even realising."
