AN EBAY buyer has snapped up a rare Kew Gardens 50p coin for hundreds of pounds more than its face value.
The coin sold on October 11 for £281.11 after a number of bidders battled it out to get their hands on the limited edition coin.
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What makes it so special is that the design on the reverse side of the coin depicts an image of Kew Gardens’ famous Chinese Pagoda, as well as featuring the 2009 mintage date and 1759 250th-anniversary milestone too.
It’s one of the most popular to collect as not many are about, only 210,000 were minted so the design is very rare.
In fact, it’s actually one of the top ten rarest coins in circulation, according to The Royal Mint – beating a number of other commemorative 50ps, older 10ps, 20ps and more.
The coin is also number one in Changechecker‘s latest 50p scarcity index, a position it’s held for years as one of the most sought after.
So this particular 50p had seven bidders interested in taking it home and the auction price quickly rose after initially being listed for just 99p.
But it’s not the most we’ve seen keen collectors pay for such a find.
One was spotted going for as much as £707 earlier in the year.
But more recently a separate listing fetched £234 for the coin, just as another seller sold the same design coin for £192, last month.
We also spotted one that sold for £161 less than a week ago too.
The real value of these particular coins can be a bit of a minefield, but there are a number of steps you can take if you think you’ve spotted a version in your spare change.
Have you spotted the 50p in your change?
If you spot one of the highly coveted Kew Gardens 50ps in your own change, you could try listing it on eBay too.
Before you do that, get the coin verified by The Royal Mint to help reassure buyers that they’re paying for the real deal.
This is a good idea to help push up the price too as you can advertise it as genuine.
That goes hand in hand with the coin remaining in good condition too.
Plus, you’ll find that online tools from change experts like Coin Hunter are helpful to see how much it could be worth.
You can also compare other rare coins on eBay to see how much they have sold for as reference.
That way you’ll also be able to check you’re not overpaying for a rare coin, or underselling the version you might have.
But you should be wary of fakes circulating online, otherwise you could end up paying through the nose for something that’s not worth as much as you initially thought.
Sometimes the number of bids on the listing can help you establish that the coin is the real deal.
But remember that on eBay any buyer can always 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
