Postmistress finds unique King Charles £1 coin after Royal Mint error

62-year-old Diane Bath, who runs The Post Office in Broughton-in-Furness, told how a £1 coin that is estimated to be worth 600 times its face value was discovered in the till.

The error by The Royal Mint meant the coi was created in brass, rather than the usual two-tone nickel.

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She took delivery of the 2023 coins bearing King Charles III’s face on September 16.

As time went on, she realised just how special the coin was after being unable to find anyone with a similar coin.

“I’ve never had anything like this in my 20 years of running the Post Office,” said Diane. “So far, it’s truly one-of-kind as I haven’t been able to find anyone who has seen one like it.

“It was discovered in a newly opened bag of uncirculated coins. The man who delivered the coins said he’d quite like to buy some so gave me £5 and I opened the bag, gave him five coins and emptied the rest into the till.

The ‘botched’ 2023 King Charles coin (Image: Broughton-in-Furness post office)“It was only later on, my colleague Siobhan came back from lunch and said ‘oh this one’s a bit unusual’ and held it up.

“Nothing exciting ever really happens here so we were over the moon.”

The first coins featuring the new monarch were released back in 2022 following Queen Elizabeth II’s death. 

Diane has contacted experts, including Facebook group Error Coins and Oddities, and so far and has so far been given an estimate as high as £600.

 Oliver Reece, a British Coin Specialist at Baldwin’s, said it could fetch more at auction however.

“It may not be unique but certainly they are, by their very nature, rare things and the market is quite strong for modern errors,” he said.

“I should think it would be worth a good few hundred pounds but you never know how these things will go at auction as there are often no direct comparisons.”

Diane says nothing has ever happened like this in 20 years of running the Post Office (Image: Broughton-in-Furness Post Office)“I don’t quite know what to do with it,” Diane said. “I guess the next step is to find out how much is it worth but obviously, if there is a batch of them discovered soon then its value may go down.

“But most likely we will take it to auction.

“It’s just the fact it was in with uncirculated coins, it came directly to us from the Royal Mint, happened to be in that bag I picked up, and was then discovered completely by chance in the till – it’s really special.” 

A Royal Mint spokeswoman said: “The Royal Mint has tight quality controls in place and the chance of encountering any UK coin with error is exceptionally low.

“We always urge collectors to be cautious and to do their research.”