I’m the UK’s youngest coin collector – I have 1,000 including rarest 50p with amazing detail and is worth £50

DYLAN knew he had a knack for spotting rare coins when he found a £2 Brunel Portrait, worth £30, when he was just 5-years-old.

The 11-year-old, who recently won a prestigious coin-collecting award from ChangeChecker as Junior Collector of the Year, now has 1,000 rare and valuable coins in his collection.

Other coins include the UK’s rarest 50p coin the 2023 Atlantic Salmon, which regularly sells for £50 online.

He was given the coin on his birthday and it recently overtook the Kew Gardens 50p coin as the rarest 50p.

Dylan spoke to The Sun about how he finds rare coins on a budget and how to sell them for profit, although he has no plans to sell his entire collection just yet.

The youngster will often go to a bank and exchange money notes for 50p and £2 coins and sift through them to find coins that are rare or he can add to his collection.

He said: “Get coins from the bank because it doesn’t really cost any money and if you decide you don’t want to collect coins anymore you can just spend the coins.”

The school-boy also recommends heading to local thrift stores and second-hand shops.

He also uses eBay to source rare coins – but he rarely sells any in his collection.

His highest sale on a coin to date was £8, when he sold two London 2012 Olympic ‘wrestling’ coins that he bought for £1 each and sold for £8 each. 

Eager collectors will also know that stumbling across an error coin—a piece that was minted incorrectly—could be your ticket to making a profit on a coin.

Dylan has his own experience with this when he found a “cud metal” 2p in his spare change.

A “cud” is a coinage error that occurs when a piece breaks away from the edge of the die used to strike a coin, resulting in a damaged area that looks like a blob on the coin.

Error coins are seen as more valuable to collections so this can push up their value.

AWARD WINNER

In December, Dylan was crowned Change Checker’s Junior Change Checker of the Year, a prestigious award which recognises his efforts to help others discover the joy of collecting.

He was nominated by his mum and alongside a trophy he won a bag of goodies and a subscription to Coin Collector Magazine.

Speaking about his win, Dylan said: “When I found out that I had won, I was really happy.”

His love of coins has also inspired him to launch a Youtube channel aptly named Dylan Collects Coins.

He is inspired by Christopher Collects, another avid coin collector and social media star who has over 80,000 followers on social media.

“He [Chrispopher] was my favourite YouTuber, and he still is, so I thought I might start up my own channel.”

And if you think Dylan’s love for collecting stops at coins, you would be sorely mistaken.

He is also an avid stamp and comic book collector, particularly Beanos.

While he has chosen not to make a killing flogging coins, comic books are a different story.

“I got a Night Rider magazine from a really old year and I bought it and I sold it on eBay for £40,” he shares.

But what he chose to spend his money on won’t come as a surprise.

“I spend it on coins,” he laughs.

HOW TO SPOT RARE COINS AND BANKNOTES

Rare coins and notes hiding down the back of your sofa could sell for hundreds of pounds.

If you are lucky enough to find a rare £10 note you might be able to sell it for multiple times its face value.

You can spot rare notes by keeping an eye out for the serial numbers.

These numbers can be found on the side with the Monarch’s face, just under the value £10 in the corner of the note.

Also, if you have a serial number on your note that is quite quirky, you could cash in thousands.

For example, one seller bagged £3,600 after spotting a specific serial number relating to the year Jane Austen was born on one of their notes.

You can check if your notes are worth anything on eBay, just tick “completed and sold items” and filter by the highest value.

It will give you an idea of what people are willing to pay for some notes.

But do bear in mind that yours is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.

This is also the case for coins; you can determine how rare your coin is by looking at the latest scarcity index.

The next step is to take a look at what has been recently sold on eBay.

Experts from Change Checker recommend looking at “sold listings” to be sure that the coin has sold for the specified amount rather than just been listed.

People can list things for any price they like, but it doesn’t mean they will sell for that amount.

We explain further how you can find out if you have a rare coin worth thousands sitting around the house.