A dad is quids in after selling a £2 coin he was given as change - for more than £200.<br /><br />Ben Mason, 26, was handed the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games coin at his local shop last October.<br /><br />He says he knew straight away that he had a rare piece on his hands.<br /><br />So the stay-at-home dad-of-four listed it on eBay - where it was snapped up for £236.74.<br /><br />That left Ben, from Royton, Gtr Manchester, with £206 after fees - which he is delighted with.<br /><br />He said: "I was over the moon when I found it - absolutely ecstatic.<br /><br />"It's been hard recently, not just for me but for everyone with the cost-of-living crisis.<br /><br />"It helped massively with energy bills and food as I'm a father of four. I just couldn't believe that a coin could be worth so much."<br /><br />Ben chose to list his coin for auction at a lower price, in the hope he'd get a few bids.<br /><br />He said: "I had it listed on eBay for auction as when I searched, I noticed everyone was selling as buy it now for £200 plus.<br /><br />"As no one had one on for auction I thought I'd take the opportunity to put it on as an auction starting for £100 bidding.<br /><br />"But I also had a buy now price for £350.<br /><br />"Within two days I got my first bid of £190 and then there was nothing up until the last hour - where the battle started.<br /><br />"To my surprise the last hour the bidding kept going up and up until time ran out and sold for £236.74.<br /><br />"But because I used eBay, they take a percentage so in total I got £206.<br /><br />"That doesn't bother me - I technically swapped £2 for £206."<br /><br />The coin was put into circulation in 2011 to commemorate the fourth Commonwealth Youth Games, hosted on the Isle of Man.<br /><br />It features the official mascot of the games, Tosha the Cat, as well as the logo of the games.<br /><br />According to the website Change Checker, mintage figures for British Isles coins are hard to track down.<br /><br />This means the true mintage figure for such coins is not widely known, so it can’t be said how rare they are - making them a collector's item.<br /><br />Ben is now encouraging others to have a sift through their change.<br /><br />He said: "Every time I get change, I'm always checking them now because you just never know and it's easy to check.<br /><br />"Just a simple search on eBay and see what's the lowest price it's going for and if there's a profit to be made then I'll sell again.<br /><br />"Check your coins as you could have spare change in your back pockets.<br /><br />"You could literally be sat on a fortune without even realising."
