50p Coins
UPDATED: Commemorative 50p Coin Mintages
Earlier in the year, we updated our Change Checker Guide to UK Commemorative Coin Mintages which included details of all the coins issued into circulation in 2017.
But The Royal Mint has just updated its mintage figures for 2017-dated 50p coins.
It won’t be a surprise that the 2009 Kew Gardens remains king of the 50p coins, but owners of the 2017 Sir Isaac Newton 50p will be glad to hear that the coin has managed to keep its sought-after 2nd place position on the chart. However, the final mintage has crept up by 1,500 bringing the total to 1,801,500
Whilst all four Beatrix Potter 50ps already had fairly high mintages when the figures were first revealed, the final mintages have since increased, the obvious change being the 2017 Benjamin Bunny 50p which has more than doubled. It has been confirmed that further Benjamin Bunny 50ps went into circulation during 2018, bringing the total mintage to 25,000,000.
Want to add the 2017 Jane Austen £2 to your collection?
Own it today in Brilliant Uncirculated quality. Secure yours here >>
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 >>
Don’t see your coin on the eBay Tracker? You can use our 6 Point Guide to valuing your coins to determine how much they could be worth.
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
Jeremy Fisher 50p Coin Swap now open!
At Change Checker HQ we are bursting with excitement, as we can now announce that our Jeremy Fisher 50p Coin Swap is officially open!
Following the buzz of the Beatrix Potter coins, we’ve made collecting the series a little easier by offering you the chance to add this fantastic Beatrix Potter coin to your collection with a fair and simple 50p for 50p swap!
The 2017 Jeremy Fisher 50p is the latest coin in the Beatrix Potter series to be released into circulation and, as you know, all too often the newest coins can often be the trickiest to get hold of…
But don’t despair, because we have managed to get our hands on 10,000 Jeremy Fisher 50p’s and we’re going to swap them ALL with Change Checkers.
As one of the most highly anticipated coin releases we’ve had, this swap is set to be one of busiest ever! So if you want to secure this coin, you’ll have to act fast!
Here’s how the swapping process works:
1) Choose THREE commemorative 50p coins that you would like to swap – these must be of a reasonable quality that you’d be happy to have in your collection
2) Complete our quick online form – we will email you a copy of this form to print out and send with your coins
3) Send us your completed form and 50p coin(s) (max. 3) in the post (remember to get proof of posting)
4) You’ll receive your 2017 Jeremy Fisher 50p(s) within 10 working days of posting your coins to us
It’s as easy as that!
Remember, only commemorative 50p coins can be swapped – the shield 50p and Britannia 50p cannot be accepted. Please also remember to obtain proof of postage from the Post Office – this will help us with any customer service queries should they arise.
Ready to swap?
For full terms and conditions and FAQ’s click here >>
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