'One of the rarest modern coins' sells for £4,500

"One of the rarest modern coins" that was produced with the wrong date has sold for £4,500.

The 50p date that was printed on the heads side - 1990 - does not match the design on the tails side, which was supposed to be used on 1989-dated coins.

A private seller found the coin and asked the Britannia Coin Company (BCC), based in Royal Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, to sell it on their behalf.

Christopher Collects, a coin expert who works for BCC, said there "could definitely be more" as "nobody has been looking for the mistake before".

The Gibraltar coin shows a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the heads side along with the date 1990 when it should have been 1989.

It is because the chorister design on the tails side - which shows a Christmas-themed choir boy and a puppy - is usually seen on 1989-dated coins.

Mr Collects hailed it as "one of the rarest modern coins out there".

The £4,500 sale price makes this 50p more valuable than the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p.

Examples of this well-known rare coin can sell online today for around £250.

Mr Collects said: “I was worried this coin was a fake, so I got a second opinion from the experts at the Numismatic Guaranty Company

"They are specialists in rare coins and authenticated the Gibraltar 50p as a real mint error."

Other examples of mint error coins where a problem occurred in the manufacturing process are undated 20ps.

In 2008, The Royal Mint released around 250,000 20ps into circulation without a date on the coin.

These error coins can sell for more than £100.

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