A RARE 50p coin is for sale on eBay by a Warrington resident for a sizeable profit.

The item has been listed on the online marketplace for more than 40x its face value.

It is available for £23, with a postage fee for £2.70, or free collection from the seller’s address in Warrington.

The item is an offside 50 pence coin. It is considered to be the rarest coin of the 29 that were issued in 2011 to commemorate the 2012 London Olympics.

It is also known as the ‘offside rule 50p’.

The coin is described to be in 'good condition'.

The Royal Mint hosted a competition for the public to submit their designs for the commemorative collection and, out of 30,000 submissions, 29 were selected.

A spokesperson for Royal Mint said: "In the build-up to the London 2012 Olympics, the Royal Mint held a coin-design competition to produce a series of 50p pieces on an Olympic sports theme.

"The competition was open to anyone, and it resulted in 29 coins and introduced the youngest-ever designer of United Kingdom coinage at just nine years old.

"With the highest mintage being the archery coin by Piotr Powaga at 3,345,500 and the lowest mintage being the wrestling coin by Roderick Enriquez at 1,129,500, any of these Olympic coins are a rare and exciting addition to a collection."

Royal Mint said people who are looking to sell a coin on the secondary market should bear in mind that if it has an unusually low mintage - it might sell for higher than its face value.

It advises that collectors should always establish how many of the coins are in circulation before committing to a price and, if in doubt, consult an expert.

To view the listing, visit here.