A lucky seller is encouraging people to check their pockets after selling a rare £2 he got from the shops for more than £200.
Ben Mason received the rare Tosha Cat £2 coin as part of some change he got from a £5 note while at the shops. After noticing that the unique coin had an image of a cat on it, he decided to do some more research and soon discovered just how much it was really worth.
The coin is often touted as one of the Isle of Man's most sought-after coins. 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.
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. 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."
After listing the coin on eBay for auction, it took a while for people to catch on and Ben believed it wasn't going to sell. However, when the listing had one hour left, it suddenly began pulling in 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 of seeing the coin sell for more than ten times its trading value, 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."
Sharing the news of the auction on his TikTok page, benmason_official_2, Ben showed what other sellers are listing the same coin for on eBay, with one seller listing it at £449.95.
Ben added that he 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. Now, Ben is hoping to help others make some extra cash to help with their financial struggles.
He advised that people should look out for "any defects the coin may have". 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.
