IT’S been over a decade since the popular Olympic coin collection was launched.
In honour of the 2012 Olympics in London, the Royal Mint launched 29 new 50p coins featuring various sports in the games.
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But even today it’s worth having a dig down the back of your sofa or a rifle through your pockets, as each of the copies is rare and could be worth up to £570.
The series, officially minted in 2011, sparked the interest of collectors and sports fans alike, who have either snaffled away rare copies for themselves or sold them on for hundreds of pounds on eBay.
The Royal Mint estimates that over 75% of the Olympic 50p coins have been removed from circulation by collectors, pushing their value up.
Yet while they were collectively produced in low numbers, there is a chance you could spot one in your own change and sell it on to make a mint.
Find that you have the complete 29 piece set and you could earn up to £80 like some sellers have sharing their whole collection on eBay.
According to ChangeChecker.org, the football coin is the rarest, with just 1,125,000 entering circulation.
RARE COINS AN VALUABLE NOTES
It’s not as rare as something like the Kew Gardens 50p – of which only 210,000 exist.
That’s another 50p minted a few years earlier than the Olympic collection, but it’ll sell for up to a whopping £721 on eBay if the right bidder gets their hands on it.
But when it comes to prices of the Olympic lot individually, the most expensive recently sold listing we could find on eBay was £570 for a 2012 Olympic aquatics coin.
It’s worth mentioning that this coin had the original design, which showed waves passing over the swimmer’s face before it was quickly adapted.
In the past, the rare aquatics coin has sold for almost £1,000.
The error in the design makes it more valuable to collectors, just like a number of other rare errors out there too.
Otherwise, the 2012 aquatics coin with the updated design is one of the more highly circulated coins with 2,197,000 released.
The most widely circulated of the set is the archer coin with well over 3.3million released to the general public.
But interest can change from one day to the next so it’s always worth taking each listing with a pinch of salt – a coin can often only be worth what someone is willing to bid for it.
Fakes crop up online from time to time too, so keep an eye out.
Here’s the top ten rarest coins of the Olympic collection, and how much they’ve sold for recently on eBay.
1. Aquatics
Sold for £570 on eBay
If you find an aquatic 50p error coin with lines over the face, this may be worth a small fortune.
A small handful of this original design was put into circulation but the design was then adapted very quickly to show the face above the water.
With so few of the original design out there, the coin’s value has been pushed up significantly.
2. Football
Sold for £31 on eBay
The football coins are the rarest of all the Olympics 2012 coins with just 1,125,500 in circulation.
The coin’s design shows a football pitch with a diagram explaining the “offside” rule.
3. Wrestling
Sold for £30 on eBay
As the next rarest of all the coins, you can still get a decent price for the Wrestling coin.
We found that this coin, which shows two wrestlers fighting in an indoor stadium, had sold for £30 on eBay.
4. Judo
Sold for £20 on eBay
If you find a Judo Olympics 50p coin down the back of the sofa, you could sell it for a decent price.
The coin, which depict one barefoot fighter throwing another to the floor, had recently sold for on eBay was £20.
5. Triathlon
Sold for £21 on eBay
The Triathlon coin recently fetched £21 on eBay, according to our research.
Keep an eye out for the design which shows three outlined figures – one swimming one cycling and one running.
6. Tennis
Sold for £8.25 on eBay
The Olympics 2012 tennis coin depicts a ball soaring over a net.
We found that it had sold for just over £8 on eBay.
7. Goalball
Sold for £6.50 on eBay
You could sell a goalball Olympics 2012 50p for £6.50 if you find it buried in an old coat pocket.
The design shows a goalball player throwing the ball in a sport that is designed specifically for athletes with visual impairment.
8. Shooting
Sold for £25 on eBay
The shooting coin for the 2012 Olympics showed a figure firing their rifle into the sky.
Our research showed that one of the coins recently sold for £25 on eBay, despite it being lower down the pecking order than some other examples.
9. Taekwondo
Sold for £9 on eBay
If you find the Taekwondo coin, you could flog it for £9 on eBay.
The coin’s design shows two fighters with the one in the foreground doing a very high kick.
10. Handball
Sold for £18 on eBay
The handball coin recently sold for £18 on eBay even though it makes the bottom of our list, it’s still 36 times more than face value and beats out others that make up lower numbers.
The design shows a male athlete preparing to throw a ball with the blueprint of a handball pitch in the background.
Rare coins and valuable notes – is yours worth a mint?
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