A RARE Kew Gardens 50p sold on eBay for almost 400 times its face value.
The rare 50p sold last month for £185 which is 370 times higher than the denomination printed onto its design.
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A bidding war broke out amongst collectors who wanted to claim the “rare genuine coin” for their own.
A total of 32 offers placed by 11 different bidders managed to rocket the asking price of £9.99, as the listing began seven days earlier.
It’s no surprise that the coin managed to grab so much attention, as it’s one of the most sought after in the coin collecting circuit.
Only 210,000 were minted in 2009 when the coin entered circulation, and in the years since, we’ve seen copies sell for hundreds of pounds.
The 50p features an image of the famous London landmark, Kew Gardens, depicting the tall Chinese Pagoda that stands proudly at the city attraction.
While assuring prospective buyers that the coin is genuine, the seller also described how the coin was a “must have for anyone’s collection”.
We’ve seen it before too, most recently a similar copy sold for £155 on eBay after a bidding war broke out and rocketed the asking price.
Another sold for £165 not long ago, while one seller managed to bag a whopping £250 for their own copy.
That’s not the highest we’ve spotted in the past though, as another went for £281 back in October too, and one listing racked up an impressive final price of exactly £370 at the beginning of November.
The reason they’ll do so well on the online auction site is due to the high demand for such a rare coin.
It helps that the coin holds the top spot on Change Checker’s, latest scarcity index and it’s also one of the top ten rarest in circulation according to the Royal Mint too.
Bidders will take these top trump specifications of sorts into consideration when they’re placing a bid and desperate to add the coin to their own collection.
How else will I make a mint from a coin like this?
It’s easy to spot a coin in your own change that could leave you quids-in.
Often coins will have been made and designed especially to commemorate an occasion or period in history.
The Kew Gardens 50p was designed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the London based botanic space.
There is a whole collection of rare Olympic 50p coins that were made to celebrate the games in London 2012 too.
The Royal Mint won’t issue an endless amount of these to keep them rare and special, so coin hunters are constantly on the hunt for the next to complete their collection.
It’s not only these specially created coins either, as rare error coins can fetch a pretty penny for their faults as well.
You should always be cautious of fakes though as they’ll often show up online.
If you’re in the market for a rare coin yourself, check that something is the real deal by looking at how many people have been willing to bid for it in the past – and how much they’ve driven the price up by too.
You can use experts like Coin Hunter or The Royal Mint to check your change is legitimate and worth what others are saying.
Always keep in mind though, that on eBay a buyer could pull out, which means the coin won’t have sold for the price it appears to have.
Rare coins and valuable notes – is yours worth a mint?
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