Here are the first four lines of the Daily Mail Reporter's article:
It's a find that could earn a student a mint - a 50 pence piece with next year's date on.
Sarah Legg was handed the coin in her change after paying for lunch at her college and noticed an unusual design.
The silver coin features one of 29 designs by members of the public created for the Royal Mint ahead of the 2012 Olympics.
Now the 17-year-old forensic science student hopes to sell it to coin collectors to help pay her university fees after she leaves Fareham College in Hampshire.
But it all falls apart in the very next sentence:
However, the Royal Mint today said the coins have slowly been released into circulation since October so people should expect to start finding them in their change now - and their value is only 50 pence.
So: teenager finds coin that's only worth its face value and has been in circulation for two months.
Stunning.
(Hat-tip to Jamie Thunder and horacegoesskiing at the Mailwatch Forum)
UPDATE: This 'story' began life in The News, Portsmouth. The News Editor there, Graeme Patfield, explains:
[The] article did not make any claims about the coin being worth 'a mint' or more than 50p. It just pointed out the student's surprise at finding a 2011 coin in circulation in 2010, a fact which is unusual and therefore might be thought of as newsworthy (or might not - it certainly seems to have got people talking anyway). Speculation about whether it might be worth more than 50p only appeared when this story was picked up by an agency and then sold on to the nationals.
Posts
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2011-50P-COIN-2012-OLYMPICS-SWIMMING-/330508909994?pt=UK_Coins_BritishDecimal_RL&hash=item4cf3ddbdaa
ReplyDeleteThis one is going at time of post at £1.25 + p&p.
Whilst it won't be enough to retire on, it is worth pointing out that money (or goods) are worth exactly what you pay for them, regardless of what the Royal Mint say.
Almost left disapointed at the Mail with this one, they could have gone a lot further.
ReplyDelete"Royal Mint BLASTED as new coins released 3 months early"
"Shoppers left confused as Olympic Coins appear TWO YEARS before Games"
"New 50p series...NO RETURN FOR PATRIOTIC BRITANNIA"
Not only a total non-story, but also a missed oportunity for Mail hacks to whip up some "Look what we have to put up with now" crap, thrown in with some luke warm nationalisism and some made up stories about the elderly getting mixed up.
That link to my account doesn't work =)
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I've had one for about two weeks - http://twitter.com/jdthndr/status/9186073921978368. I was excited until I, er, did some research.
(still refuse to spend it though)
I do feel a bit sorry for Sarah one minute se thinks she's found the solution to all her problems then she discovers her 50p is only worth 50p and then to top it all the government announces it is to scrap the forensic science service.
ReplyDeleteSo she run up a large debt training for a job which probably won't exist by the time she has qualified. When it rains it falls.
I have a pound coin, I think it might be worth more than 50p - do you think the Mail might be interested??
ReplyDeleteThe other day I made a THREE POUND COIN.
ReplyDeleteAll I needed was three pound coins and some glue.
I never realised you could do Forensic Science as an A-level, but given that the girl is 17, she's presumably not spent a lot of money yet.
ReplyDeletePerhaps out there somewhere there is a very rare copy of the Daily Mail which contains no racists, sexist or homophobic articles. How much would that be worth?
ReplyDelete