Noonan’s had this pass through their sales room two days ago. It is of apparent great rarity with a sale through London Coin auctions in 2015 and allegedly one specimen found in a 2008 (!) celebration currency mint set. min looking over it this may be the single rarest Great Britain decimal currency coin:
I just googled a bit. The 2009 reverse is much different! I wonder since the designs had just changed if anyone paid attention! From your comment, these were found in special sets, correct? Not circulation issue?
Technically a circulation issue but not known. This specimen was not attributed to an uncirculated currency set but word of mouth is that there was one that was; this coin may be that very coin or represent another specimen as nobody has a picture of the coin pulled directly from a set. London Coins sold 8 years ago the very first specimen that had some signs of possibly being loose in change (!?). So the list of known specimens appears to be: 1 - Auction coin from London Coin Auctions, sale 2015 2 - Possible coin removed from 2008 Currency (?Celebration set). All other coins were normal 2008 coins evidently. 3 - THis coin, which may be the same as Coin #2 That is is. The 1983 Specimen Currency sets that held the 1983 "New Pence" 2P coins came packaged generally in the "Martini" sponsored set with a few known from the "Heinz" sponsored set but also a normal unsponsored uncirculated currency set. Some are alleged to have been pulled from circulation but these could be coins broken out of mint sets. Nobody is sure of the mintage but I have see thrown about mintage figures of 50-200.
I got then martini set with the two pence mule in it. I took no real notice of it until the stories of the coin started to surface.
Really nobody seems to know much else. If you look up 2009 mule British coins, what comes up is the undated 20P. I was not aware of this coin until looking through the catalog for the Noonan's sale. When I looked it up specifically I saw that the London coin sale had offered it in 2015 and in the description seems to refer to one other piece and then nothing else heard until this sale that I could find. Please see the post above for the cited coins. I do not understand how a 2009 coin with a 2007 and prior reverse would somehow be placed into a special 2008 currency set; by 2008 the new reverse had been struck and if there was another coin it would tend to be from an EARLIER year and not a LATER year. And then with the OLDER reverse. All that sounds a bit confusing but the coin would seemingly have to be extremely rare and is not explained further by anybody, myself included.
As an addendum, there were similar "lion" coins struck of 2008 (KM 989) date but this was a transition year where the design converted over to the Coat of Arms (KM 1110) with 2007 being the last year of lion coins solely and none listed in catalogues or Krause for after.
I also have one of these 1983 Martini sponsored sets with the mule 2p in it. Like Offa I took no notice of it until much later and was delighted to find I had it. I have no idea where I picked it up but must have paid no more than normal for a 1983 standard set. On the 2009/2007 10p, I would guess someone was testing the new 2009 dies during 2008 and inadvertently matched it with the older reverse which was still in use for part of 2008. Lord knows how many were produced and if they went into circulation most people would not spot them.
Also great job on the 1983 set! I have forgotten what I paid but knew what it was when I got it - I think around 600 quid. paddy you may be correct about the origin of the OP coin; other than the muling the coin looks perfectly ordinary to my eyes. I wonder if the RM would comment on it?
Probably not. They used to have quite a good customer relations department that would respond to that sort of query, but these days they are only interested if you are buying something.
Boy, the royal museum had that one for a while. Thats a cool find, did you buy it labeled as a mule or is it a cherrypick?
I got that in the DNW auction in June of this year.....They are not too prompt in responses however, much to the dismay of many including me....
