The famous 2009 Kew Gardens 50p remains the most coveted coin in circulation, with a mintage of just 210,000. Other rare designs include the 2011 Olympic 50p’s and the highly collectable Peter Rabbit 2018 coins. Rarest 50p coin designs released into circulation in 2019 Rarest 50p coin designs in circulation. Rare Kew Gardens 50p coin sells for 400 times its face value on eBay 1. 1937 Edward VIII Brass Threepence – potential value: £45,000 Each coin is valued at around £45,000 (Image: NetVoucherCodes.co.uk). The 2009 Kew Gardens design is very rare, around 1 in 15007 50 pence coins have this design. 210,000 coins dated 2009 entered circulation. Face Value 50 pence Collector Value Range £51.76 to £62.28. Comparative Rarity Score: 6.

1. Rare 50p Coins Worth Money
2. Rare 50p Coins 2020
3. Rare 50p Coins List

Over the years, The Royal Mint have released several limited edition coins that collectors have gone mad over – so mad in fact, that they’re willing to pay hundreds of pounds towards them to complete their collection.

And the best part is, is that you’ve probably got one sitting in your change that you didn’t even notice – and unless you’re inspired to start your own collection, you could flog it on eBay for an amazing profit!

It’s true – a coin created by Jonathan Evans and Donna Hainan was released to celebrate 50 years of girl guiding, and it’s selling on eBay for £800!

One seller, rdk302007, has the coin listed for £800.

They wrote: “One of few rare celebratory 50 pence pieces celebrating one hundred years of girlguiding.

“A real collectors coin, which is gaining more and more popularity amongst collectors. As shown, girlguiding crest on the front. Free postage.”

Another seller, gretania26, has the coin listed for £250, with £5 post and packaging.

Here’s a compilation of the most valuable 50p coins in circulation at the moment – the ones that you could be handed in the shops buying your groceries without even realising.

1. WWF

The WWF design was released in 2011, complete with 50 different animals alongside the trademark panda logo.

Coin Checker told Metro “The design by Matthew Dent features 50 individual icons which represent the various facets of the WWF with the famous Panda at the heart of it.”

If it’s in pristine condition, the coin can sell for over £200.

“One coin which has seemed to unite favourable public opinion is the WWF 50p issued in 2011.”

2. Jemima Puddle-Duck

This coin was released in 2016, marking the 150th birth anniversary of children’s author Beatrix Potter.

This is the sixth most rare coin in the UK, with only 2.1 million in circulation.

Rare 50p Coins Worth Money

While eBay lists the coin as worth only £8.95, experts say it could be worth up to £100.

3. Kew Gardens

Only 210,000 of these were released to commemorate the 250th anniversary of London’s Kew Gardens, and it’s believed that 300 are being kept in private vaults.

It’s considered to be the rarest 50p coin, worth £50 – however it’s selling on eBay for up to £200!

4. 2012 London Olympics

Rare 50p Coins 2020

29 different Olympic designs were released, but the original swimmer coin with the water passing over their face is worth up to £1,450 on eBay after only 600 were released.

If you have a full set of the Olympic coins you could bag yourself around £35. If you have a football, wheelchair rugby, wrestling and tennis coin then you could still get £3-£4.

5. ‘Offside Rule’

This other London 2012 Olympics coin is worth £10.

6. EC Commemorative

This 50p coin was released back in 1992 to celebrate the British presidency of the council of Europe.

109,000 were issued, and the coin is no longer in circulation because of the reduction in size of 50p’s in 1997.

If you happen to find one at the bottom of that money jar you’ve had for years, you could get yourself £20 – probably the same as the contents of the jar in the first place!

The Royal Mint has revealed the rarest 50p coins in circulation, presumably fuelling a desperate rummage down the back of the nation’s sofas.

It released the top 10 rankings ahead of the 50th anniversary of decimalisation, which comes on 15 February – the Decimal Day changeover of 1971 inspired many people to become coin collectors over the years.

Top spot is claimed by the famous Kew Gardens 50p, which was released in 2009 to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Its mintage of just 210,000 coins puts it well ahead of the competition, which is dominated by the Olympic-themed 50ps minted in 2011.

Olympic and Beatrix Potter 50p coins among the rarest

The rarest of the sports honoured in this collection are wrestling, football, judo and triathlon, all with fewer than 1.2 million coins minted.

Also making the top 10 are the Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny 50ps from the Beatrix Potter collection of 2018.

In 2019 more than 500 million coins were released into circulation, including three new 50p designs celebrating Arthur Conon Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and Paddington Bear at St Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London.

The Royal Mint’s director of UK currency Mark Loveridge said: “Coin collecting remains as popular as ever, and we were delighted to release a number of special designs into circulation in 2019.

“The Kew Gardens (50p) remains the most coveted coin, with a mintage of just 210,000, but it’s always exciting to find a special design in your change.”

Rare 50p Coins List

What are the rarest 50p coins in circulation?

Here are the rarest 50p designs in circulation, with their year and their total mintage, according to the Royal Mint:

1. 2009 Kew Gardens, 210,000

2. 2011 Olympic Wrestling, 1,129,500

=3. 2011 Olympic Football, 1,161,500

=3. 2011 Olympic Judo, 1,161,500

5. 2011 Olympic Triathlon, 1,163,500

=6. 2018 Peter Rabbit, 1,400,000

=6. 2018 Flopsy Bunny, 1,400,000

8. 2011 Olympic Tennis, 1,454,000

9. 2011 Olympic Goalball, 1,615,500

10. 2011 Olympic Shooting, 1,656,500

Are the rare 50p coins valuable?

The rare coins website Change Checker has a recently updated eBay tracker, which claims that some 50p coins can fetch significant sums in the secondary sale market.

This reports that the rarest 2009 Kew Gardens coin sold for an average of £156 over the auction website’s nine most recent listings, while the Olympic Football 50p fetched an average of £13.

Other 50p coins making the top 10 on Change Checker’s tracker are the 2018 Sir Isaac Newton coin and the Jemima Puddle Duck from the Beatrix Potter collection.

It should be pointed out, as the website states, the market in supposedly valuable coins “can be a bit of a minefield,” and it’s important to do your research before being taken in by viral stories of coins fetching huge sums.

Last year, for example, various reports claimed a Battle of Hastings 50p sold for £63,000 on eBay, supposedly because it was “very rare”.

This coin was launched in 2016 to commemorate the famous battle’s 950th anniversary, with as many as 6.7 million entering circulation.

Speaking to The Mirror, Alexandra Fiddons from Change Checker wasn’t able to explain exactly why the coin would sell for such a purportedly high fee, but said that sometimes “random coins” do reach surprising prices.

She pointed out that other versions of it were selling for just £2 on eBay, concluding: “We often have random coins that we don’t expect to take off that much and sometimes they just skyrocket. That could be the explanation here.”

While some coins can fetch sums comfortably above their 50p value, often it is “error coins” – versions which found their way into circulation after being minted with mistakes – which are particularly valued by collectors.