THE CHANGE sitting in your wallet could be worth a small fortune, and you might not even realise.
If you’ve stashed away coins that are rare you could make a mint selling them on eBay.
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In general, the rarer the coin, the more valuable it is.
And you can tell how rare a coin is by looking at its mintage figures.
Avid coin collectors can look to The Royal Mint for the most accurate mintage figures for every type of coin in circulation – they tell you how many were ever made.
But by far the largest collection is the definitive ranking of 50ps.
Designs can be found from fun Beatrix Potter characters like Flopsy Bunny, all the way to style’s embodying charity giants like the WWF.
One of the most popular though, is the Kew Gardens 50p – it’s the most sought after, even sparking bidding wars amongst collectors on eBay desperate to get their hands on the coin.
Some are willing to pay hundreds of pounds to claim it for their own – as high bids reach £580 on some listings.
But you can often guarantee that a hard to find coin will be one someone could spend a lot of money on.
With that in mind, here are the Royal Mint’s top rarest 50ps:
Single Market – worth £70
- Mintage: 109,000
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The Single Market 50p was minted in 1992.
Only 109,000 were produced, making it the rarest ever 50p.
According to the Royal Mint’s figures, it’s the second rarest coin in circulation overall, too.
Collectors are also keen on the coin’s “double dated” design with “1992” and “1993” both featuring in the production.
One we spotted on eBay had sold for as much as £70 which is 140 times more than face value.
Kew Gardens – worth £580.03
- Mintage: 210,000
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The rare Kew Gardens 50p is one of the most popular coins to collect thanks to its distinct design.
It even tops the charts in Changechecker’s scarcity index, and will commonly sell for hundreds of pounds online.
The 50p coin features the Chinese Pagoda at the famous London landmark and is one of the rarest coins out there because there’s so few of them.
Only 210,000 of them were released into circulation in 2009.
The most we’ve seen the coin going for on eBay lately though is £580.03.
That’s how much one bidder was willing to pay for a Silver Proof copy anyway – which means it’s not one that’s passed through people’s change.
It’s a bit more likely to sell around the £400 mark though if you’re looking for a circulated copy.
1985 Britannia – worth £12.27
- Mintage: 682,103
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In 1985 the Royal Mint released a Limited Issue Britannia 50p coin.
Only 682,103 were made so collectors are still keen to get their hands on a copy as the old coin is so rare.
In comparison, there were nearly half a billion of the 1997 Britannia 50p put into circulation.
The reverse design is a seated figure of Britannia by Christopher Ironside and the obverse design is a portrait of Elizabeth II by Raphael Maklouf.
The coin itself is a bit larger than some of the more modern change you might have in your pocket, but you’d have to part with around £12.27 to own your own copy now.
Football – worth £27.59
- Mintage: 1,125,500
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The Royal Mint struck a number of designs celebrating the London 2012 Olympics which featured on 50p coins.
Of all the coins created to commemorate the games, the 50p Football is among the rarest and features an explanation of the offside rule on it.
It’s a great design for fans of a kick-about, and even if you keep it all to yourself you’ll never fall short of knowing the complicated rule in the game.
But you could make a mint of over 53 times its face value selling a copy on eBay – especially as one sold for £27.59 not long ago.
Wrestling – worth
- Mintage: 1,129,500
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There were nearly 1.13million of these 50p Wrestling coins made in 2011 to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games too.
It’s the second rarest in the series, making it just as hard to get your hands on – but more valuable if you are lucky enough to spot one.
The coins picture two athletes wrestling in front of a crowd, with one being thrown to the ground.
These 50ps can go for much more than its face value – with one selling for as much as £23 on eBay recently.
How much are other 50p coins worth?
Many coins can be worth much more when sold on eBay as part of a collection.
Although sometimes you’ll get better individual prices if another collector needs your coin to complete their collection.
The rare Blue Peter Olympic 50p has been flogged on eBay for £205 in the past.
The coin shows an athlete doing the high jump and was drawn by nine-year-old Florence Jackson after winning a competition on the kids TV show.
To his surprise, one seller managed to pocket a whopping £63,000 flogging his Battle of Hasting’s 50p too.
Coins with mistakes tend to be among the highest values as well, because they’ll also come in extremely limited numbers.
One 50p that was mistakenly struck twice sold for as much as £510 on eBay because it was rare.
It’s not only 50ps either, as a rare error 10p coin sold for over 1,000 times more than its face value on eBay only recently, too.
Newer versions that could be worth a mint too
You might think that old coins go for the most – but new ones can go for some big sums too.
In 2019, the Royal Mint re-released sets of five of the rarest and most popular 50ps to celebrate half a decade of the coin.
The new coins are made with old designs including Kew Gardens, Girl Guides and Scouts, but are stamped with the 2019 date which could make them super valuable among collectors.
The £90 collectors’ proof sets sold out in February 2019, but you can still get uncirculated sets for £45 directly from the Royal Mint.
An entirely new 50p coin came out in 2019 too, to celebrate Team GB.
And new coins come out all the time, across the board – a new FA Cup £2 design came out only the other week, and it could be worth a mint of its own in years to come.
How do I find out what my coin is worth?
If you’re lucky enough to pick up a rare coin in your spare change, it could go for hundreds of pounds depending on how rare it is.
You should check how much the coin is selling for on eBay.
Search the full name of the coin, select the “sold” listing and then toggle the search to “highest value”.
It will give you an idea of the amount of money that the coin is going for.
But remember, a buyer could always pull out so the coin may not have gone for the price it says it has.
And watch out for fakes too.
You can also use an online tool that gives you an estimate of how much it could be worth on eBay, as well as any other rare coins you have.
Coin Hunter gives you an estimated valuation of your coin based on the average of the most recent sales, as well as a range of how much you can expect it to fetch.
Plus Change Checker’s Scarcity Index – updated only this week – will give you a good idea of where coins rank too.
Rare coins and valuable notes – is yours worth a mint?
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