January 2019 eBay Tracker Update

Buying and selling coins on the secondary market can be a bit of a minefield and excessive coin prices on eBay can leave collectors confused as to how much these sought-after coins are really selling for.

So we’ve simplified the process for you by sharing our UPDATED Change Checker eBay Tracker and Valuation Index for the Top 9 coins and banknotes …

Valuation Index

 

Find out which coins and notes have been the key movers and shakers in the updated eBay Tracker below.

 

 

There has been an overall increase in the price of our Top 9 most sought-after coins and notes, with the most notable increase going to the Jemima Puddle Duck 50p, which has jumped from an average sold price of £5.50 in June to £11.00 in January!

After dropping 19% last year, the Olympic Football 50p has now rocketed up by 29% and is also currently selling at £11.00. The Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland £2 and the Undated 20p have also seen improvement since June, with the £2 increasing by 20% to a phenomenal £31.00 and the 20p now selling for £50.00 on average.

Of course the highest selling coin of our Top 9 is the highly sought-after Kew Gardens 50p. This coin remains king, selling for an incredible £97.00, which is a 20% increase on June’s figures. There has been a lot of excitement regarding the 2019 re-issued Kew Gardens 50p coin which has led to increased press coverage of this coin, which could be a factor in the higher prices people are willing to pay to get hold of one for their collection.

 

Kew Gardens 50p still selling for £97.00

 

You’ll notice with this update that the Inverted Effigy £2 has been removed and this is due to the fact that the rarity of this coin means very few are available and the prices are volatile. This combined with the fact that we have not been able to find 9 of these coins sold in a qualifying period means that it has been removed and replaced with the 2018 Sir Isaac Newton 50p.

Could this newcomer be the rarest coin on the eBay Tracker?

This newcomer to the eBay Tracker was only available at The Royal Mint Experience as a Strike Your Own Sir Isaac Newton 50p coin and the mintage figures are unknown, but due to the short time frame and visitor numbers, there could well be substantially less than 210,000 of these coins struck, meaning the 2018 Sir Isaac Newton 50p coin could very possibly have a lower mintage figure than even the Kew Gardens 50p! And this is certainly reflected in the price people are willing to pay for the coin, with an average sold price of £59.00.

 

2018 Sir Isaac Newton 50p selling for £59.00

 

Whilst the average sold price for the 92/93 EEC 50p remains unchanged at £56.00, the 2015 Britannia is the only coin in our Top 10 to have decreased in value since June, with a decrease of 20% meaning the average sold price is now £4.00.

Both banknotes in our Top 10 have also taken a hit, with the AA01 Polymer £5 slipping from £14.50 to £10.00 and the AA01 Polymer £10.00 from £18.00 to £15.00. However we must remember that this is still double the face value of the £5 note and 1.5X face value for the £10, which certainly isn’t a bad profit to be made!

So now that you’re up to date with our latest eBay Tracker, will you be selling any of the coins in your collection or will you continue to save them? Let us know in the comments below.

How does the eBay Tracker work?

The Change Checker eBay Tracker takes the last 9 sold prices achieved on eBay and gives the median price achieved (rounded to the nearest 50p). By taking the median, rather than an average, we avoid skewing created by one or two excessive prices achieved.

Please note that the Change Checker eBay Tracker is only ever designed to be a guide as to prices achieved on eBay. Prices may vary depending on collector demand and the quality of the coin being sold. It does not provide any guarantee as to future values of coins.


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

Does Margaret Thatcher fit the bill? The hunt for the new face of the £50 note.

In their search to find a suitable candidate to feature on Britain’s new polymer £50 note, the Bank of England has received over 175,000 nominations, including the late Baroness and former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Some 800 of the names put forward are actually eligible to become the new face of the £50 note, with the Bank of England requiring the notable person to be real, deceased and have contributed in some way to UK science.

So does Margaret Thatcher fit the bill?

 

Late Baroness and former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Credit itv.com

 

Most famed as Britain’s first female Prime Minister and the UK’s longest-serving leader of the 20th century during her time as Conservative Party leader from 1979 until 1990, what many people may not know is that Margaret Thatcher’s early career was actually in the field of science, as she worked as a research chemist.

In fact, for a period of time she worked for J Lyons, creating emulsifiers for ice-cream and developing the much-loved soft scoop!

However, it was during her later political career that people started to think of Maggie as cold and frosty, as her nickname ‘The Iron Lady’ suggests. Her uncompromising political style made her one of the most controversial political figures in British history.

Considering her degree in chemistry and following her famous work with ice-cream, you can certainly agree that she has contributed to the UK field of science, but would you like to see her on the new polymer £50 note?

 

Guido Petition’s interpretation of the £50 note featuring Margaret Thatcher. Credit: order-order.com

 

The Bank of England has published a list of names nominated in the first week of the selection process, as a preliminary stage of identifying eligible names for consideration.

Initial speculation seems to favour Professor Stephen Hawking, Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace and Rosalind Franklin as suggestions for the new note, however other more unusual names also made the list, including Will Hay (comedy actor/amateur astronomer) and Roger Bannister (first runner to achieve a four-minute mile).

You have up until the 14th of December to continue nominating characters via The Bank of England’s website. We don’t yet know when the chosen notable person will be announced or when the new note will be released, other than it will be after the new £20 polymer note featuring JMW Turner which will be released in 2020.

So would you like to see Margaret Thatcher on the new polymer £50 note?  Change Checkers voted in our poll on Facebook and the results are in:

 

 

It’s clear that Maggie isn’t a favourite to feature on the new £50 note, but who from the scientific community would you like to see on the note? 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

Change Checker Web App Banner 2 Amends 1024x233 1 1024x233 - Who would you like to see on the new polymer £50 note?

Sign up today at: www.changechecker.org/app

Who would you like to see on the new polymer £50 note?

This weekend, the Bank of England confirmed that the £50 note will remain part of UK currency and a new batch will be issued after the £20 note in 2020 following a public nomination process to select potential characters to appear on it.

In keeping with the new £5 and £10 polymer notes, the £50 will also be printed on thin, flexible plastic polymer material, making them cleaner, safer and stronger.

In September 2016, the first polymer £5 note featuring Winston Churchill entered circulation in the UK. Its success lead to the Jane Austen £10 polymer note being released the following year and plans for the first polymer £20 note featuring artist JMW Turner to be issued in 2020. It will be down to the public to decide who should appear on the new £50 notes, so who would you nominate? 

£20 concept image. Credit: Bank of England.

The £50 note was first introduced in 1981 and there are now 330 million in circulation, totalling a combined value of £16.5 billion!

Recently there have been fears that £50 notes are being used for criminal activity such as tax evasion and are rarely used for standard purchases. However, the Treasury has said that this new batch of polymer notes has been designed to be more secure and harder to forge, meaning that they are here to stay.

2011 £50 note. Credit: Bank of England.

They will also be more durable and environmentally friendly than their predecessors, lasting roughly 2.5 times longer than paper notes.

Sarah John, the Bank’s Chief Cashier, said: “I’m very excited to be starting the process of introducing a new £50 note. At the Bank, we are committed to providing the public with high quality notes they can use with confidence. Moving the £50 note onto polymer is an important next step to ensure that we can continue to do that.”

What are your thoughts on the £50 note and who would you like to see feature on the next polymer batch? 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