A savvy coin collector is quids in after selling a rare 50p piece for nearly £200 - and he is now urging people to "check their change" for hidden treasures. Darren James, 38, bought a 2009 Kew Gardens 50p coin off eBay three years ago for £80.
He decided to sell the coin on eBay with no idea how much money he would get for it - or if he would break even. According to Darren, it was a "slow-burner" and he had hardly any interest until the final hour of the bidding- the price skyrocketed to £186.11.
Darren, from Plymouth said: "I bought the coin three years ago to jump on the bandwagon after I saw an advert to check your change.
"It was quite exciting, it was like how far are we going to go here? It was up for a week, and I had barely any interest.
"In the last twenty minutes, hundreds of people started bidding. It got to £186.11 so I made about £100."
Darren's glad to have the extra cash to help towards renovating his new home. The former navy chef has now "caught the bug" and collects the Olympic Games coins and £5 coins and now has around 100 in his collection.
He added: "I've got into the mintage world and looking into how much they are worth. It's like an itch I've scratched. It's definitely worth checking your change."
The Kew Garden coin was released in 2009 to mark 250 years since Kew Gardens opened in 1759. It is one of the most famous and iconic coins created by Christopher Le Brun and features the Chinese Pagoda at Kew with a decorative leafy climber twining in and around the tower.
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Darren, who lives in Plympton, told PlymouthLive that following a Google search he learned that people were buying the 2009 coin for an "astronomical" price. On the last day of the coin being on eBay about 200 people were watching the sale and were bidding on it.
He told PlymouthLive: "I bought the coin at the height of the craze when people were collecting 50ps and I also collected some of the Olympic ones. I bought it for quite a high price, about £80 at the time, and I thought I would just throw it in the back of the cupboard.
"When I saw an advert about to 'check your change' for rare coins, I thought I would Google the coin I had and realised people were buying them for an astronomical amount and gave mine a go."
Asked how he felt when the coin sold for £186.11, he said: "Brilliant. It was a bit of a shock because it was a bit of a panic bid towards the end and the starting price was much lower than what I sold it for. Within the last five minutes of the sale closing, the price just rocketed through the roof.
"It was bid after bid after bid - my phone went nuts. I went from two or three people watching it to the last day of it being sold to nearly 200 people watching it. I don't understand how people got their bids in so quickly.
"Definitely check your change. If you have got anything lying around which is a bit unusual or bespoke I would get it checked and see if it's worth anything. There are people out there who buy these coins for astronomical prices. It's a bit ridiculous - but hey ho."
