Rare 20p coin sells for £7,100

13:54 01 July 2009

A rare 20p coin, which was said to be worth £50, has sold for a whopping £7,100 on eBay.

Collectors have gone wild to get their hands on one of the coins, which were printed without a date by the Royal Mint earlier this year.

The eBay sale means the coin has fetched 35,500 times its face value. However it is still unclear whether the coin has actually been paid for.

A spokesman for eBay told the Daily Mail: "The winning bid was definitely £7,100, but I can't confirm yet whether the actual transaction has been completed yet."

There have even been some sellers on eBay who have offered the rare coins for £20,000 as a 'buy it now' price.

The Royal Mint estimates there are around 50,000 and 200,000 of the coins in circulation.

But it is not he amount of coins that makes them a desired purchase. ItÂ’s the fact that the Mint, who is usually very precise and accurate when it comes to releasing new coins, made a big mistake.

So big in fact that this is the first undated British coin to enter circulation in more than 300 years - the last occasion was 1672, when Charles II was on the throne.

The Royal Mint's 'mule' coin escaped into circulation when all the coins, from the 1p through to the £1, were redesigned in 2007.