Rare silver 2p coin minted in error goes on sale in Edinburgh for an eye-watering £485

A RARE two pence coin has gone on sale in the Capital for £485 - an astonishing 24,250 times its face value.

The Granton-based seller posted the silver-coloured coin on online marketplace Gumtree with the asking price.

But even that price tag is dwarfed by the £1,350 asimilar coin fetched at auction back in 2016.

“Extremely rare coin which I bought three years ago,” the Granton seller posted next to a picture of the coin.

“The price is set and will not become an auction as it’s being sold through necessity.”

Minted in error in 2015, such rogue coins are accidentally struck onto the cupro-nickel base of a 10p.

Such mistakes at The Royal Mint - which can manufacture up to four million pennies a day - result in 'error coins' known as 'mules'.

These mules are extremely rare, as most are spotted by the Royal Mint's strict quality controls and never released into general circulation.

That makes them valuable to collectors who are willing to pay way above the coin's face value to add them to their collections.

Last February a similar 2p - minted in 1989 - was listed on eBay for £1, but sold for £485 after just 19 bids - each new bid increased the price by an average of more than £25.

Apparently after the original buyer failed to pay up, the coin was relisted and sold for a more conservative £90 in March - still 4,500 times its face value.

In 2016, another silver 2p coin that was almost discarded as a fake after it was discovered in a charity collection tin sold at auction for £1,350 – nearly 70,000 times more than the actual value of the coin.

It was found in a Poppy Appeal tin by Charles Vernon, treasurer of the Royal British Legion in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, who noticed the abnormal coin while he and his wife were counting the day’s collection.

Assuming it to be a fake, Mr Vernon took it to the bank to be destroyed.

“When we tried to put it in the 10p pile it didn’t fit – it was an anomaly and stood out,” he told the BBC.