Undated 20 Pence

With coins, as with most other things, price is a function of supply an demand. In the case of the undated mule 20p coin, the "demand" was generated by the media hype and resultant frenzy. As for the "supply" side of the equation, the quoted mintage figure of 200,000 is really only a guess, based perhaps on statistical sampling; as with most kinds of error-varieties, the true mintage is likely to remain unknown. For such coins you really need to wait for a generation or two to pass by before the actual quantities available to the market become certain. So in that sense, they do indeed make terrible investments.

It's been a couple of years now since the London Mint Office ran its "will pay £50 for one" campaign in June 2009, which caused the most recent frenzy. Right now, the typical actual selling price (via a Completed Listings search) on eBay.co.uk is in the £40 to £50 range, which is up from the £20 to £25 range seen a year or so ago. I can only assume domestic and international demand from actual collectors has spawned this resurgence in price. If the demand for the coin stays high due to collector interest, then the price will remain high and £50 would be a perfectly reasonable price for one. An example of the much rarer (but much less-hyped) 1983 2p mule recently sold for £160 BIN price, which is much lower than the £750 price listed in my 2011 Spink.

>> As for the "supply" side of the equation, the quoted mintage figure of 200,000 is really only a guess, based perhaps on statistical sampling;

That figure is actually from the mint itself, they know very roughly how many of the batch were struck with the wrong dies. I've not seen any undated 20p in the £20 to £25 price range since just before the London Mint got involved - but I appreciate that others may have been keeping a better watch than I.

Most of these 20p have been salted away by people who think they are a good investment....

There are a number of reproductions, sorry, fakes in the market as well now to watch for!

I have not found any fakes and I would not believe it worthwhile to create dies etc to produce them, given that the market is small, i.e they would have to be sold to collectors on ebay or the like who will check the validity of a coin. I have found 2 from circulation within the last 6 months and none from the previous 4 years! Sometimes you are lucky! The latest figures I plucked from the RM site - don't ask me where it was because it has to be the hardest site to navigate for information in the Coin World - were that 109,000 of the mules went into circulation.

well, a while ago there was an ebay seller selling what he described as "copies"
I didn't buy one, perhaps I should have.

Found this;
http://reviews.ebay.com/Undated-20p...000020734559

I am gobsmacked! I didn't think it was worthwhile for anyone to counterfeit the 20p mule. You live and learn. I've just checked my 20p mules - glad to say they are genuine!
Thanks for the link andyg

And I have checked all of my NON mule 20 P coins, and I am reasonably sure that they are ALL genuine!

Pity about the One Pound coins!