GIRL Guiding is the UK’s largest girl-only youth group – but did you know there’s a coin to celebrate the organisation too?
The rare coin was minted in 2010 – 100 years after the Girl Guides began.
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On its reverse, the coin features the trefoil Girl Guiding logo which looks a bit like a three leaf clover.
While it officially came out 12 years ago now, the design had a new lease of life when it was re-issued in 2019 as part of the 50th Anniversary of the 50p Celebrations.
But because this one was a commemorative issue, it didn’t enter general circulation, so you’d be less likely to spot it in your spare change.
You might find that style instead advertised in mint-condition presentation packs.
The original 2010 issue coins have a good chance of cropping up in your change though.
We reveal just how likely that is, and how much you could make if you decided to sell a copy on.
RARE COINS AND VALUABLE NOTES
How rare is the Girl Guiding 50p?
There are 7,410,090 Girl Guiding 50ps in circulation according to Change Checker.
In comparison, there’s around 200 million regular 50ps which feature the Royal Shield design instead.
Change Checker’s latest scarcity index update reveals where this particular coin ranks amongst the masses though.
It sits in 46th place out of the coin experts’ 71 rarest ranked.
It’s only got a score of three though – and it’s considered a “common” coin.
The scarcity index ranks each of the coins between one and 100 to indicate how hard they are to find, as well as how in demand they may be.
The higher the number, the rarer the coin – and this can make it more valuable too.
But there is a win for the girls versus the boys, as the Girl Guide 50p ranks higher on the chart than its counterpart, the Scouts 50p.
That coin sits even lower, in 48th place, but it also has a score of three – 7,710,750 of these exist to compare too.
How much is the Girl Guiding 50p worth?
As the coin is a little lower down the scarcity table, it doesn’t fetch as much on eBay as we’ve seen for other highly sought after coins.
Some can sell for hundreds of pounds on the online auction site.
Instead, the most we’ve seen for the Girl Guide 50p is a listing for £50.
That would have made the coin 1,000 times more valuable than its face value.
Only one bid was placed on this though, so we can’t tell for sure if the sale was the real deal.
A more reasonable £4.20 was placed on another listing though, as nine bidders battled it out to get their hands on the coin.
It wasn’t a whopping sale, but still meant the coin was handed over for more than eight times its face value.
How rare are other 50ps in my change?
If you spot a unique design on the 50ps in your change, they could be rare and worth a mint.
Designs with a low mintage are more valuable to collections as they are harder to get their hands on.
You can check how many exist in total with experts like Coin Hunter, Change Checker, or The Royal Mint.
And if you do spot one in your own wallet, you can try reselling it on eBay.
A good example of a rare 50p is the ever-popular Kew Gardens 50p.
It’s one of the most valuable coins to collect, often selling for thousands more than its face value of 50p – as some bids reach over £300 or more.
Other listings on eBay will help you to see how much you could get too.
But beware of fakes – and keep in mind that a buyer could always pull out, which means the coin won’t have sold for the price it says it has.
Rare coins and valuable notes – is yours worth a mint?
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