Trial Piece £1 Coin 2015

Nice find Angel.
Trial pieces are sometimes struck to test metal structure and the coining presses before a full run of circulation coins begins. They are of interest and do have value, however, as to how much any individual trial piece is worth would depend on how many collectors wanted to own it and how much they would be prepared to pay. I see other examples of this £1 trial piece have appeared for sale on the web recently (Google it) but have failed to attract buyers at the prices they are being offered at.

I have a trial piece made to test the half penny presses in 1957. Although certainly rare(ish), it cost me no more than a few pounds. I'll post photos presently.

Compare this with the 1994 £2 trial coins. I bought one in the presentation pack about 2 years ago for £40. They are now being advertised on ebay for around £150 to £200. One newspaper article said that only 4500 packs were made.

Give it a few years and your trial £1 probably will be selling for three-figure sums.

Something else that is starting to climb in price is the 2009 Blue Peter olympic 50p.

What interests me is how these trials leak out to the public. I thought that they were issued to manufacturers for design/testing of machines and were supposed to be returned. Is there anyone in the business who knows how it works? Am I right in thinking that employees "souvenir" them?

I found another one today! It was in with a bag of 50p's. It seems strange to find two a few days apart in the same cash office so I'm guessing they're not that rare.

Still swapped it for a £1 out of my purse, they're nice coin to have :)

Considering the new £1 won't be introduced until 2017 I reckon it'll be quite a rare find just now as none of these are even out yet, and with the curiosity factor inbuilt for the new coinage I reckon it might be worth a bit more than expected.......

It might not be worth as much later as it might be now, i'd try it on ebay, I think there will be interest

The Royal Mint are removing any found for sale on ebay, as they are still the property of The Royal Mint and are supposed to be returned no later than December 2017.

If The Royal Mint informs ebay that the item in question belongs to the government and cannot be legally sold, they most certainly can have ebay halt the auction.

Here is the auction, I've sent a question to them regarding the legality of selling and ownership

www.dnw.co.uk/auctions/catalogue/lot.php?auction_id=443&lot_id=1111&search=1

This has now been withdrawn