The 'extremely rare' £1 coin error worth £2,500 - but you need a microscope to see it

Brits are being encouraged to inspect their change for a rare coin that could potentially be worth thousands of pounds. The £1 coin contains a very rare error - but you might need a microscope to spot it.

A coin expert highlighted the specific £1 coin to look for in a TikTok video for budding coin collectors.

In the video, the collector, known as 'thecoincollectoruk', is seen holding what seems to be a regular pound coin. He tells viewers they could get £2,500 for finding a 12-sided coin with a specific error, reports the Mirror.

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"You can see when we flip this over on the obverse [heads] side, this is a 2016 version of the £1 coin," he said. "However, some were made with the micro-lettering on the reverse side with the date 2017. This is an extremely rare error - we only know of one that's been sold to a buyer in Spain, which fetched for £2,500."

A close-up of the date displaying 2017 in micro-lettering is then shown in the video. The collector said you will likely need to use a microscope to properly see the date - as it is incredibly small.

"You can see here the date 2017 in micro-lettering on every side," he said. "If you are going to look for this error in your change then you'll probably need a microscope because the micro-letting around the edge is extremely fine and very hard to see.

"It's definitely worth checking if you have a 2016-dated coin on the queen's side for the micro-lettering on the reverse side for 2017."

One viewer commented: "I will keep looking in my change thank you so much much appreciated sir."

Another asked: "Do you know how many is out there with the wrong micro date because I've been looking since 2016 and I've never found one," to which the coin guru admitted they were unsure of the number produced.