Rare 50p coin fetches £2,500 at auction - see the Royal Mint's rarest coins (2024)

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Rare 50p coin fetches £2,500 at auction - see the Royal Mint's rarest coins? ›

An extremely rare and sought-after 50p coin has been sold for £2,500 on online auction site eBay. After inspiring a mini-bidding war that attracted 33 bids, the gold proof Kew Gardens 50p sold for 5,000 times its monetary value.

In 2022, the Royal Mint revealed the most valuable 50p coin ahead of the golden anniversary of decimalisation in 1971. The rarest is the Kew Garden 50p coin, which was designed to mark the 250th anniversary of the gardens in 2009. Only 210,000 coins were ever minted in this design.

The coin was struck in 2009 to mark the 250th anniversary of the opening of the gardens. The Kew Gardens coin is the rarest 50p in common circulation. The Kew Gardens 50p coin can sell for far above its 50 pence face value, and is officially considered the rarest of the 50p coins.

The shape of the 50 pence made it the ideal canvas for special commemorative designs, and over 70 events, anniversaries and individuals have been celebrated on circulating 50 pence pieces. The famous 2009 Kew Gardens 50p remains the most coveted coin in circulation, with a mintage of just 210,000.

A sure fire way to know if you've found a keeper is to check the mintage figures for your 50p. Generally speaking, the lower the mintage, the rarer the coin and the harder it will be to find in circulation.

Many collectors choose to sell through eBay or similar online auction sites operating today. It is definitely a better choice than going through a pawnbroker, but getting a reasonable price for even rare 2 pound coin or even a collectable 50p coin requires a great deal of right timing and even a bit of luck.

What is the rarest £1 coin? According to coin database Change Checker, the 2011 Scotland: Edinburgh City £1 coin is the rarest to have been released, with a mintage of under a million. It depicts the circular coat of arms of Edinburgh and sells for about £10 on eBay.

There are an estimated 417 million 2-pound coins presently in circulation, representing 37 different designs. The rarest of these are the 2-pound coins minted in 2002 that celebrate the 2002 Commonwealth Games and bear the flag of Northern Island. Only 485,500 of these coins were ever minted.

The 1822 Half Eagle gold coin is currently one of the rarest coins in existence. Released with a $5 denomination by the U.S. Mint, the eagle design was created by John Reich. Approximately 17,800 pieces of the 1822 coin were made, yet only three are still believed to exist today.

What is special about the 1997 50p coin? ›

In 1997 the Royal Mint reduced the size of the 50 Pence coin. To celebrate and honour that event, they struck a pair of both sizes of the 50p in Proof Sterling Silver and put them into a green presentation case. The larger of the two coins weighs 13.5 grams and the smaller one weighs 8 grams.

The Kew Gardens 50p is the rarest of all the 50p pieces, with only 210,000 in circulation. They have been known to sell for as much as £895 on eBay before. The design was created by Christopher Le Brun RA and features the famous Chinese Pagoda with a leafy chamber that twists around the tower.

The most expensive Queen Elizabeth II coin was a commemorative coin minted in late 2023. This coin, minted to mark the one-year anniversary of the Queen's death, is worth $23 million. It's called "The Crown." This sum may sound like a lot, but the coin's size means that it makes sense.

We will quote to buy your coins and bars at 98% of our current gold bid price if stored within The Vault™. Whilst previously we only offered the option to sell bullion which was stored in our on-site vault, we now offer investors the chance to sell bullion which was stored or purchased elsewhere.

The coin experts also recommend looking out for a Royal Arms 50p coin with the date of 2017, as only 1.8 million entered circulation that year. While they would not be worth as much as £60, they would certainly be worth more than 50p, with one selling for £5.

The specification was changed for 1997 with the older, larger coins removed from circulation. Today, you are very unlikely to come across an old 50p in your change and if you did you would not be able to spend it in a shop. Since they can be hard to find, these pre-97 50ps are sought after by change collectors.