A Tale of the 2014 Britannia Mule Coin...

Alright kids, gather round the campfire, Uncle Mikeshuh is going to tell you a tale. Back in 2014, I used to frequent the "Silver Coins" forums of SilverStackers.com (I still periodically go there today, but the forums are pretty quiet). I saw a post about a newly found error coin. Technically, it was a "Mule" coin? So what the heck does that mean? It's when one side of a coin gets struck with the incorrect die. In this case the 2014 Britannias were struck with the obverse of the 2014 Lunar Horse and vice versa.

(PHOTO FROM: blog.westminstercollection.com/2014/03/31/2014-year-of-the-mule-the-royal-mint-confirms-lunar-year-and-britannia-striking-errors)

Back in those days, I used to like to pick up a coin from all of the major mints each year. I had recently went to my local coin shop and bought a single Brittania, so I went and dug it out. Lo and behold it was the mule!!! I rejoiced! To this day it was one of the greatest moments in my stacking life. I went back to my LCS a day or two later with a little money I pulled from the bank, hoping to find another. I did find another...and another...and another. I bought all the ones on display with what money I had. Happy dancing ensued!

I told my dad and brother about my luck. My dad said he would go back to see if they had any more. We pooled our money and agreed to buy whatever we could afford sight unseen. Sadly, there were no full rolls, but there were more, and dad bought them.

This was a risky move, considering none of us have much disposable income. We could have ended up with a bunch of common coins purchased with money that really should have been spent on bills. But the reality was that the Royal Mint did admit that only 17,000 coins of my variety were minted. Our coins were pretty scarce! More happy dancing ensued!

This story could have been perfect, but like in life, stories do not always have a perfectly happy ending. I put my coins away in a tube and did not look at them again for years...uggggghhhhhh. The Royal Mint did its best RCM impression with these coins. Just about every single one got spots. Some with a few, some with a lot. So now I am sitting on a bunch of spotted Brittanias that will never deliver me what I thought they would.

All in all, I cannot complain. I got a good story and bought them at a pretty low premium. I could still make a profit off of these someday, but I am a stacker, so I am in no hurry to make a move.

Out of curiosity, I checked the E-Bay listings for this item and a couple of things stuck out:

• There are a not a lot of these coins being listed or sold.
• Why are almost all the listings in Malaysia? That seems fishy. Are there fakes of these coins in circulation?
• Slabbing the coins was no match for the power of the milk spot. The close up photos of many of these coins have spots, even ones marked MS69 and MS70.
• Why do some people list coins drastically over the listing prices of identical coins? Some people list their coins for hundreds or even thousands of what similar coins are listed for.

So there is my little tale for you today. Do you have any good error coin stories? Did you know what a "mule coin" is or know what "denticles" are? If not, and you read my post, you learned something today!

#steemsilvergold

Thank you to @Bearone for the instructions on how to create the footer. For my fellow Alliance members, please see her post on how to create your own footer :

https://steemit.com/thealliance/@bearone/customise-your-alliance-footers-with-picsart#@bearone/re-mikeshuh-re-bearone-customise-your-alliance-footers-with-picsart-20170920t041920438z