Coin collectors may be prepared to pay huge amounts of money for a coin, should it be truly rare. For those who are less experienced, it could be worth seeking advice from an expert in the field, as well as doing plenty of research. That’s because, sometimes, coins are listed for huge amounts of money online – but just because the seller claims that they’re “rare”, doesn’t mean they actually are. However, this may not be the case with a 2009 Kew Gardens 50p coin – which has recently been spotted on eBay.
A Kew Gardens 50p coin is selling for £120 on eBay
So, what is known about this “rare” 50p piece?
The coin itself was released into circulation back in 2009, with a mintage of just 210,000.
Its design marks the 250th anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Botanic Gardens in London.
The reverse was designed by Christopher Le Brun, and features Kew’s famous Chinese Pagoda with a decorative leafy climber circling around the tower.
The significant dates in question, 1759 and 2009, are also printed onto the coin.
The seller, “stepuk.heo9s”, has listed the coin at auction, with a starting price of £120.
That doesn’t include the £1.50 standard delivery fee.
Amid the description of the coin, the eBay user has called this coin “collectable” and “rare”.
A coin of this variety has been known to sell for a lot more than its face value, and that’s due to its scarcity.
Change Checker have ranked this coin at 100 on its scarcity index, making it the scarcest 50p out there.
Meanwhile, the publication Spend it? Save it? What should you do? has dubbed it “the rare one”.
The team behind the guide also valued it at £100.
Obviously, it’s up to the buyer as to how much they are prepared to pay in order to get their hands on a coin.
However, this is not the only 50p coin which could be worth a huge amount of money.
How much is your money worth?
Rare coins: This is what you should be looking out for in your wallet.
A faulty £1 coin which has the 2016 date on one side and 2017 in micro-inscriptions around the edge of the reverse is worth £3,000
The 2011 Olympic and Paralympic Sports Issues saw an Aquatics 50p coin being released.
First issues which were sold through the High Street newsagent WHSmith saw the swimmer depicted on the coin looking as though they were underwater, due to lines being drawn over the face.
Later, the lines were cleared from the athlete’s head.
As such, coins with the head in the lines have been valued at more than £750.
It’s not known how many of these were released, with 2,179,000 of the later editions (valued at £4) being issued.
Which are the rarest £1, £2, 50p, 20p, 10p and 2p coins?
Rarest £2 coins
The rarest £2 coin is the 2002 Commonwealth Games NI coin with 485,500 in circulation. This is followed by the 2002 Commonwealth Games Wales which has 588,500 in circulation.
Next up is the 2015 Navy, and there are 650,000 in circulation.
Rarest £1 coins
The most rare £1 coins are all part of a series celebrating the British capitals.
The rarest of these is the 2011 Edinburgh coin, with 935,000 in circulation. Of the 2011 Cardiff coins there are 1,615,000 in circulation, while the 2010 London coin has 2,635,000 in circulation.
Rarest 50p coin
The rarest 50p coin is the Kew Gardens coin, which is also the rarest coin in circulation. It there were only 210,000 minted.
The football Olympic 50p coin has 1,125,500 in circulation, and the wrestling coin has 1,129,500 in circulation.
It is not so easy to evaluate the rarest 20p coins, 10p coins and even 2p coins as exact circulation figures are not known.
However, various versions of the coins are known to sell for large sums.
These include the dateless 20ps, which are actually part of a run from 2008. There may be between 50,000 and 200,000 of these coins in circulation.
The 1983 ‘New Pence’ 2p coin can also sell for a huge sum, up to £650.
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