Rare Christmas 50p sells for £150 on eBay – do you have one in your change?

A RARE Christmas themed 50p has sold for just over £150 on eBay.

There’s a slight catch to the coin though, as for UK coin fanatics its value is only because its decorative, and you can’t actually spend it here.

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It features an image of Santa and a chimney with the word “Christmas” on the design as well as the 50p denomination found at the bottom.

So similar coins are sure to turn any collectors’ heads who are on the hunt for something festive to add to their collection, especially as the “big day” is only a few months away now.

But, the coin was minted in Gibraltar.

That means it’s not technically legal tender in the UK, but ChangeChecker has confirmed that sometimes these can make an unexpected appearance in our change too.

The 50ps are identical in size, shape and weight to UK denominations and the change experts explain how that means they can often find their way into tills and vending machines undetected.

Especially as the Crown dependency, much like other British territories has very similar looking change featuring the Queen Elizabeth II head on one face, many could find the change getting muddled up with our own.

This one sold on eBay on September 30 for £151.25 though, which regardless of where in the world you can in fact cash-in the coin, is far higher than its face value.

So you might not have much luck exchanging it for goods at the 50p face value over here in England, but you could still fetch a pretty penny for it reselling on sites like eBay.

Gibraltar mintage figures are typically much lower than UK coins, which means they are often highly sought-after by collectors too, here or overseas.

According to Coin Hunter only 30,000 of the Santa and chimney 50ps were minted.

The coin sold on eBay comes with a matching commemorative card which also hikes up the resell value.

It means that this one technically hasn’t been in circulation, but there’s nothing to stop others making their way through pockets if they lost the card set along the way.

The coin is pretty retro too, as it was minted in 1998, many collectors will be keen to get their hands on it just because it’s not as modern.

But if you find yourself in possession of a similar coin, you could check out how others have sold similar commemorative pieces on sites like eBay too.

Online tools from change experts like Coin Hunter are helpful to see how much it could be worth as well and you can also refer to Change Checker’s latest scarcity index update to see which coins are topping the charts.

For other top 50ps in the UK you can check out The Royal Mint’s latest update of the rarest coins in circulation, but sadly you won’t find the Gibraltar one in this list.

But there are other ways to verify the coin, including spotting the number of bids on the listing.

This one racked up 24 bids from eight different bidders showing collectors were keen to get their hands on it.

The seller has a very positive profile on eBay too, with 100% positive feedback, which helps provide reassurance that the items on offer are genuine.

But remember that on eBay a buyer could pull out, which means the coin won’t have sold for the price it appears to have.

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk