Posts Tagged ‘Change Checker’
The 2025 George Orwell £2 is watching you…
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
You might recognise this motto from the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), perhaps one of George Orwell’s best known works. And if you’re a fan of Orwell’s stories, you’ll be delighted to hear that a UK £2 coin has been issued to celebrate his life and works.
An ‘eye’ for detail
The 2025 UK George Orwell £2 has been issued 75 years after the passing of English novelist, poet, journalist and social critic, Eric Arthur Blair – better known by his pen name George Orwell.
The reverse design, created by Henry Gray in collaboration with the Orwell Foundation, features an illustration of an eye in reference to the all-seeing Big Brother from Orwell’s final novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the centre of the eye is a camera lens surrounded by the iconic tagline “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”, and yet another famous quote from the story, “THERE WAS TRUTH AND THERE WAS UNTRUTH”, serves as the coin’s edge inscription.
Add the 2025 UK George Orwell £2 to your collection >>
Other works
During his life, Orwell penned several novels including Animal Farm, A Clergyman’s Daughter and Keep the Aspidistra Flying, as well as three nonfiction works, and he was even named the second-greatest British writer since 1945 by The Times in 2008, second only to Philip Larkin.
Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
However, his 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four remains one of the most influential books in popular and political culture, with many words and phrases from the story becoming part of the English language.
Previous UK coins issued to celebrate British literature and legendary writers have proven incredibly popular with collectors. We’ve seen the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle feature on UK coins in recent years, and George Orwell is a welcome addition.
Secure your 2025 UK George Orwell £2
Secure the 2025 UK George Orwell £2 for just £9.99 (+p&p) >>
Vote for your favourite 2025 Annual Coin design
The 2025 Annual Coin Set was released on 2nd January 2025, and we asked for your help to decide which of the five brand new coins is the best design.
The results are in!
You’ve been voting for your favourite design from the 2025 Annual Set, and we can now reveal the results…
The Royal Greenwich Observatory £2 has been voted Change Checkers’ favourite design from the Annual Set, with a whopping 30.67% of the votes!
Interestingly, in both first and second place were £2 coins, so could we be about to see a resurgence in £2 coin collecting? Remember, no new commemorative £2 coins have entered circulation since 2016, and it looks like demand for new £2 coins is definitely on the rise!
Do you agree with the results? Let us know in the comments if your favourite didn’t make it to the top!
Secure the 2025 Annual Coin Set
Add the 2025 Annual Set to your collection for just £42 (+p&p) >>
The Salmon 50p makes waves in our December 2024 eBay Tracker update!
So you’ve found a rare coin or banknote in your change and are wondering ‘how much could it be worth?’ It’s difficult to determine a coin’s value as the secondary market can be a bit of a minefield, so we’ve done the hard work for you with our eBay Tracker!
Our eBay Tracker is an easy way for you to see how much the top 10 UK coins and banknotes are selling for right now, and with a new rarest 50p in circulation – it’s worth keeping an eye on!
You might notice that your favourite coin or banknote that we’ve tracked in the past is missing, but you can always check out our previous eBay Tracker updates to see how their value has changed over time.
eBay Tracker
Since our last update, there’s been one major change to the collecting world – the announcement that we now have a NEW rarest UK 50p! It was revealed in October 2024 that the 2023 Salmon 50p had a circulating mintage of just 200,000, meaning it knocks the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p off the top spot!
2023 Salmon 50p
An estimated 500,000 Salmon 50ps entered circulation in November 2023, however, collectors were finding them hard to come by. Later, in October 2024, it was announced that the official mintage figure was just 200,000 – 10,000 less than the Kew Gardens 50p! This meant that for the first time in 15 years, we had a new rarest UK 50p!
We added the Salmon 50p to our eBay Tracker back in June 2024 as it was one of the newest coins to enter circulation. Back then you could get your hands on one on the secondary market for under £15, however now that we know just how rare it is, it’s selling for around £85 – that’s a 477% increase on average!
Kew Gardens 50p
Now the second rarest 50p in circulation, the Kew Gardens 50p can still fetch hefty amounts on the secondary market. Don’t forget, it’s had 15 years to stake its claim as the pinnacle of collecting, so even though it’s no longer the rarest in terms of mintage, the Kew Gardens 50p is still incredibly sought after.
The average secondary market value for a Kew Gardens 50p has decreased by £3 since our last update, but you’d still be looking to pay nearly £150 for one – that’s 300 times its face value!
Undated 20p
The undated 20p is often thought of as the ‘holy grail of change collecting’, as it’s not been confirmed just how many of these error coins made it into circulation. As one of the most sought-after coins, it’s at the top of many collectors’ wish lists, and some are willing to pay up to £64 to get their hands on one.
That’s a 28% increase since our last eBay Tracker update in June 2024, so it’s definitely worth checking your 20ps!
W (World Wide Web) 10p
The A-Z of Great Britain 10p series was first issued in 2018, with a 10p representing something quintessentially British for each letter of the alphabet. A second wave of these 10ps was issued in 2019, and out of all of them, the 2019 W for World Wide Web 10p has the lowest mintage figure of just 63,000!
According to our eBay Tracker, you can expect to pay around £6 for a W 10p on the secondary market, which is a 33% increase since our last update. Not a bad return on a 10p coin!
The first ever King Charles III Banknotes
The first ever King Charles III banknotes entered circulation on 5th June 2024, and as they’ll only be issued to replace worn or damaged Queen Elizabeth II going forward, they’ve inevitably become extremely sought after by collectors.
Whilst the median selling price for a King Charles III £10 banknote has remained essentially the same since our last eBay Tracker update, a King Charles III £5 will cost you 61% less than 6 months ago. If you’re missing a King Charles III £5 note from your collection, now might be a good time to get one on the secondary market for under £10.
Valuation Index
Using the total price of the coins and banknotes tracked, the Valuation Index follows the rise and fall of their overall value, measured in points against the baseline set in January 2017.
Since the last update in June 2024, there’s been an 18% overall increase in the value of the Top 10 coins and banknotes on the eBay Tracker. But bear in mind that the coins and banknotes tracked were updated in June 2024, as represented by the vertical dotted line on the graph.
eBay Tracker FAQs
How does the eBay Tracker work?
The Change Checker eBay Tracker takes the last 9 sold prices on eBay and gives the median price achieved. By taking the median, rather than an average, we avoid skewing figures with excessively high or low prices.
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.
My coin isn’t on the eBay Tracker
The eBay Tracker follows the movements of the top UK coins and banknotes, however if your coin doesn’t appear on the tracker you can use our 6 point guide to help determine the realistic value for your coin.
Find out more about your coins
If you’re interested in coin collecting, our Change Checker web app is completely free to use!
