£2 2012 Charles Dickens Question.

Hi SueCoin and

Firstly, there is no such thing as right or wrong way up with the edge inscription on £2 coins. The edge inscription is applied to the blank metal discs before they are put into a giant hopper that feeds them between the dies. It's completely random which way up the blank will land. So roughly 50% of any £2 coin issue will have the writing one way up and roughly 50% the other. Unfortunately some ill-informed people got the idea that coins with the writing legible when the Queen's Head was pointing downwards were errors, and try to sell them as errors on ebay.

Regarding your particular coin, it looks as if grease or something may have filled the downstroke on the letter L. It's not something I personally would consider a collectable variety, but you might like to retain the coin as a curiosity. I'm sure other British collectors will chip in with their views. I've just checked a Dickens £2 from my change pot and it has very well defined letter L's.