1971 2 new pence coin UK

One hears conflicting stories regarding this coin

Please explain

Do you mean that sometimes it is offered on Ebay as “RARE !!! EXCEPTIONAL FIND !!!” for $1000 or more, while fellow collectors will give it to you for free if you ask nicely?

This coin is worth face value, and people put it on offer for ridiculous prices in the hope that someone bites. Although I can't imagine that anyone would.

I've asked myself before if this couldn't be a vehicle for money laundering.

investigations officer: Can you explain where you got this money from?

suspect: I sold some extraordinary rare coins to a collector.

investigations officer: And where did you get those coins?

suspect: Just found them in my change, and I noticed that they were over 50 years old!

investigations officer: Can you tell me to whom you sold them, then?

suspect: That I cannot tell for privacy reasons.

When I get bags of 2p's from the bank, I will probably have at least half a dozen 1971 coins out of the 50 total.

Most are well worn or beaten up but every now & then I find a keeper in reasonable condition.

So, other than the money laundering that ArnoV mentioned:

• Some people are unfamiliar with it saying “New” pence instead of “One” & think it's a mistake. And as we all know, mistakes are always valuable. 🙄

• It was the first year of issue. In a lot of collectable items, usually the first is hardest to get as it's usually made in smaller numbers to “test the waters”. Coins are somewhat of an oddity to this thinking, often the first year is the biggest year with later years just topping up supply.

• Age. Some people just assume everything old must be valuable. They don't understand you can buy items thousands of years old for surprisingly little money. Not just coins, but all sorts of items especially simpler pieces for the everyday person. Glassware, porcelain, even sculptures & weaponry. Along with things like hair pins, needles, jewellery beads etc.

• Genuine misunderstanding of terms. Some people assume a good quality survivor of circulation quality is actually a proof or even specimen coin.

• Media hype. We've all seen those “This coin just sold for 1 Million pounds. Do you have it in your change?” type articles. Often it's pure click bait articles to simply drive traffic and/or ignorance of the writer. People then find it in their change & think slapping it on the Internet for a quick fortune.

• Simply driving traffic to their online store. The seller knows no-one is going to buy it. But buyers are curious & will click to see what this “exceptionally rare” coin is. This then suggests to the selling platform that this person is selling desirable goods & may place their other items higher in search results. Additionally, buyers may then browse the rest of their shop & buy a totally different item. Obviously, they have to be careful on this one, lots of views & no buyers & the platform might view them unfavourably too.

So there's a lot of potential reasons; fraud, ignorance (both willful & genuine), or simply trying to improve their online presence with eye-catching “banner items”.

Unfortunately this news paper fashion of finding “rare” coins for large sums at the local fleamarket ,can be seen

even in small countries like Bulgaria. 

Internet is full with many of adds offering the “rare”  penny coins from the 1971 issue for sums in the range from 250 £ to 1000 £ and more. I had been asked one or two time a questions like -" is this possible ,is this coin a rare 1971 pence coin ?" 

Who will pay so much for such penny coin, when it can be bough for a prise of 10 pence?  

I think that in most cases the reason is misunderstanding and misinterpreting of the information that most people hear or have read at one or othe website at Internet. I could give the same example with Bulgaria, 1 and 2 stotinki ,from 1981 issues. There are two different varieties ,one which is the ordinary type bearing the inscription “1300 yares Bulgaria ” and the second rare with NRB ( People Republic of Bulgaria,result of a minting error ) which is valued by collectors. Many websites at Bulgaria wrote titles like

- “ Collector from Plovdiv is selling 2 stotinki from 1981, for 15,000 Leva” ( the equivalent of around 7000 pounds). This provoked a hysteria amongst many people, which didn't make difference between the two varieties. I have heard that there were a lot of offers made by such people, from 50 to 100 Leva for any coin from 1981 without looking the inscription at all . Probably a result of ignorance and misinterpreting of the facts.

“Buyer beware” is the phrase to keep in mind - I have noticed quite a few coins appearing on Ebay with those ‘Busy Bee’ defects and supposedly over-stamped dates. Lots of watchers - I bet it's all you fellow Numista types? Me too, I'm really interested to see if anyone actually buys one. But at those prices you would think most people would take the trouble of obtaining reliable expert verification and getting their facts right regarding metals etcetera. I'm learning fast….

…………… to be wary.

They minted over 1 billion of them, the 1p and 2p are the only UK coin immune from changes in size, circulation or metal content (Well not the last modern ones are copper plated steel and 1971 coins are bronze) and thus examples dated 1971 are still found in large numbers as they were a huge mintage and have lasted well, being nearly worthless and not used much anymore.

But none of them are rare or scarce, they are worth face only - maybe the copper is worth 4p - but no smelter will deface circulating coins in the UK.

The Ebay sellers are deluded dreamers and the gutter media (Sun, Daily Mail, ITV) just love to sensationalise the 1 or 2 mint errors that you will never find in reality. There are probably more 1971 2 new pence coins still circulating in the UK, than there are people.

Even UNC they are worth nothing, a 1971 proof set costs just a few pounds and the blue folders with them in with the ½ new pence to 10 new pence are a pound if you are lucky.