How rare is my 50p and how much is it worth?
As a collector, there’s no better feeling than finding a sought-after 50p in your change! But with over 76 different 50p coin designs in circulation, how can you tell which ones are worth looking out for?
Luckily for you, we’ve done the hard work and compiled a number of resources to help you determine how rare your 50p is and how much it might be worth.
Mintages
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.
Here is the most up to date mintage chart for UK 50p coins in circulation, with the UK’s rarest circulation 50p – the 2023 Salmon 50p – right at the top. The Salmon 50p recently overtook the Kew Gardens 50p as the rarest 50p when it was announced in October 2024 that only 200,000 of them are in circulation – 10,000 less than the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p!
In third place is the 2018 Peter Rabbit 50p with a mintage of 1,400,000, a huge jump up from the tiny mintage figures of the Salmon and Kew Gardens 50ps!
Click here to read more about the 50p mintage figures >>
eBay Tracker
Mintage figures are a great way to find out how many of a certain coin were released into circulation and therefore, how difficult it might be to find – but this doesn’t necessarily give you a value for your coin. One way in which you can determine what your coin might be worth, is to look at how much it’s sold for on secondary market sites such as eBay.
Again, we’ve made things easy for you by taking the last 9 sold prices achieved on eBay for the top 10 coins and banknotes and giving you the median selling price. By taking the median, rather than an average, we avoid one or two excessive prices skewing the figures.
Our latest eBay Tracker update revealed that the rarest circulating 50p – the 2023 Salmon 50p – could fetch you up to £83.60 on the secondary market. However, a 2009 Kew Gardens 50p will still set you back over £140, despite no longer being the rarest 50p.
You can also see that the undated 20p, known as the ‘holy grail of change collecting’, is selling for a median of £64 – not a bad return on a 20p coin!
Read our latest eBay Tracker Update >>
Change Checker’s Scarcity Index
Mintage figures only tell part of the story when determining how scarce and sought-after the coins in your collection are. That’s why we created the Change Checker Scarcity Index to give you a complete picture of how your coin compares to other 50ps in circulation.
We combine a coin’s mintage figure with how many collectors have listed the coin as being in their collection on the Change Checker App, and the number of times the coin has been requested as a swap on our Swap Centre.
Our latest Scarcity Index for 50p coins was the first one to feature the 2023 Salmon 50p, so the Kew Gardens 50p remains at the top whilst the Salmon 50p establishes itself as the new rarest 50p.
So how rare is your 50p?
So, now you know about the above tools, you can start to determine how rare your 50p is and how much it might be worth.
We’d love to know if you’ve found any rare coins in your change recently, so let us know in the comments below!
If you’re interested in coin collecting, our Change Checker web app is completely free to use and allows users to:
– Find and identify the coins in their pocket
– Collect and track the coins they have
– Swap their spare coins with other Change Checkers
Sign up today at: www.changechecker.org/app
Hi I have two 50 pence pieces, both 2017.
One of them is the Benjamin bunny and the other is The Tale Of Peter Rabbit.
Both in mint condition.
Hi Milly, these are lovely coins and very popular amongst collectors, especially if in mint condition. If you have a read of our blog “Could I be minted? – The 6 point guide to valuing your coins”, you should be able to determine a realistic value for your coins if this is what you would like to do – https://www.changechecker.org/2018/08/02/could-i-be-minted-the-6-point-guide-to-valuing-your-coin/
I have a mrs tiggy-winkle 50p what is it worth? Thanks
Hi martin, we don’t do valuations I’m afraid as it’s too dependent on the condition of the coin and whether or not the buyer needs it for their collection. However you can find information such as mintage figures and scarcity index data in our blog which should help and if you check the recently sold listings on ebay you will see what people are currently paying for the coin. Thanks, Rachel
Hi rachel, i have the dictionary coin saxon 1755? Theses are veing sold from some sellers for 2,000 pound. What do you think and is the best place to sell ebay
Hi Jasmine, if you’re looking on ebay it is best to check the recently sold prices, as coins may be listed for a high price but not actually sell for that. Checking to see what the coin is currently selling for will give you a better idea of how much you could expect to sell your coin for on ebay. I hope this helps. Thanks, Rachel
I have 4 of battle of Hasting. And 2 battle of britain all used bu5 good condition
Great finds, well done David!
I have isaac nuton 2 or 3 spare
You say that sir Isaac Newton is second rarest at 2.100.000 but I was told that this coin would become the rarest with only 1.800.000 being made. This was why I bought 6 of them did royal mint tell me wrong.
Yours sincerely David
Hi David, the Sir Isaac Newton is the second rarest 50p-, with a mintage of 1,800,000. Jemima Puddle Duck was previously second rarest with a mintage of 2,100,000 but has since been pushed down to third by Sir Isaac Newton. You can see our most recent mintage charts here: https://www.changechecker.org/2018/07/23/update-how-rare-is-my-coin-a-change-checker-guide-to-uk-coin-mintages/
I have a huge collection of £2 coins
Loads of 50ps
Loads of the Beatrix potter coins how do I go about selling them please
Thank you
Hi Lynn, it’s great to hear you’ve built up such an impressive collection. We’ve put together some helpful blogs that can advise you on how best to value and sell your coins: https://www.changechecker.org/2018/08/02/could-i-be-minted-the-6-point-guide-to-valuing-your-coin/
Thank you I will take a look I also have 4 of the sir Issac Newton coins aswell
Could you tell me please on how rare the new 2018 Isaac Newton 50p is going to be ?
And will they ever circulate the coin
Thanks Steve
Hi Steve, the 2018 Sir Isaac Newton 50p is expected to be very sought-after and you can find out why in this blog: https://www.changechecker.org/2018/01/04/could-the-2018-sir-isaac-newton-50p-coin-become-the-rarest-50p-ever/
Hi all,
Regarding the 2018 Isaac Newton 50p
Your views please?
Did the Royal Mint mess up?
Living close by to the mint, it was easy to get my hands on one of these uncirculated coins.
You had to pay to undertake the Royal Mint Experience tour, and striking your own coin at the end.
Fine! If you live close enough to do this !!
It soon caught on that people were willing to buy these coins then on eBay for between £50-£80
Now I believe they are still selling for around £40
The coin collectors amongst us, were then finding it difficult to book on a tour to get the coin due to people booking themselves on every single tour of the day
They had no interest of what the tour guide was telling them regarding the history of the Royal Mint, they would just walk to the exit doors on each display
The tour guides were really getting fed up, of still having to complete the tour, with persons they had already shown around 10 times that same day.
In the final months of this coin being available, the mint attempted to reduce the number of times persons could book per day.
However this was poorly managed.
My experience seeing family’s dragging their children around tour after tour, just to get extra coins to sell on eBay, was disheartening, and not interested in collecting at all.
I don’t see why coin collectors living miles from the mint, have to buy a coin on eBay for at one stage £50/80
Did the mint mess up?
Or did they make a killing on the costs of the tour itself ?
Interesting observation, I’ve had 26 inquiries for my 50p judo coin, 24 off then have only offered Tom kitten, must be a lot of them going spare!!
Which is the scarcest 50p between the battle of Britain coins with the 4th portrait or the 5 portrait of the queen??
Hi John,
Here is a blog about the different Battle of Britain 50p coins. Each variation was on a different version, the Silver Proof, the Brilliant Uncirculated, the circulation 50p. So the mintages cannot really be compared.
https://www.changechecker.org/2016/02/19/spot-the-difference-the-battle-of-britain-50p-that-has-caused-a-stir/
Thanks
Rowena
Where does the 2015 battle of britain 50p without 50p written on it come in the list (how many of these were released before the error was noticed???
Hi John,
It was only the Silver Proof 50p which didn’t have the denomination on the Battle of Britain 50p, so none were entered into circulation.
Thanks
Rowena
I have 2p coins with the words new pence dated 1971,77,79,80. I have a five pence dated 2012 but it is silver on one side and evidence of it being black on the other also have a ten pence dated 1992 which also looks black in colour also a two pence dated2009 but it has a lion feature on front and the queens head has an error on her hair also have 1p coins dated1971 in mint is condition as the wrapper broke also have five pound commenetive coins one has people riding horse on one side and circle of trumpets on other the other has queen Elizabeth the queen mother with signature the other has queen mother August 41980 another one is dated 1977 and the other is of prince Charles and lady Diana spencer also have various other coins which appear to be of foreign origin are the above mentioned of any value
Hi Hazel,
Unfortunately, we are unable to tell you what your coins are worth as this depends on so many variables. However, if you have a read of our blog “Could I be minted? – The 6 point guide to valuing your coins”, you should be able to determine a realistic value for your coins – https://www.changechecker.org/2018/08/02/could-i-be-minted-the-6-point-guide-to-valuing-your-coin/ .
If you have questions about potential errors, please send in photos to [email protected] .
Thanks, Rowena