2019-10-04 Fri

To mark the 160th birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the detective series, Sherlock Holmes, 50 pence coins were launched by The Royal Mint in the year 2018.

These coins could be purchased for £10 from The Royal Mint Experience or on the Royal Mint website.

Recently, one of these 50p coins has sold on eBay for £500, which is 100 times its worth at face value.

The coin features the profile of the fictional detective, who's wearing his iconic deerstalker hat and smoking pipe.

Behind him are tiny inscriptions of the titles of books in the Sherlock Holmes series.

The coin makers later released a batch into circulation in May this year to mark the author's actual birthday.

It's unlikely that a circulated version will fetch as much at auction because the closer it is to mint condition the more valuable it is.

Circulated Sherlock coins are currently selling for around £2 online.

The seller didn't specify whether it would be sold in its original packaging or not, which may have added even more value to it.

The coin sold for the price that it was listed for after receiving four bids.

Image Courtesy: The Sun