Posts Tagged ‘Rare coin’
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
Could I be minted? The 6 point guide to valuing your coin!
So, you’ve been hunting down that coin for what feels like a lifetime and now it’s finally turned up in your change! But after the excitement and thrill of finding that elusive coin, you find yourself asking the question, “What do I do next?”…
There are a number of options for deciding what to do with your coin and whilst many collectors enjoy holding onto them to build their collection, pass down to children, or potentially see their value change, lots of people look to sell these coins on auction sites, through dealers or on eBay.
Before deciding whether to sell or save, you should first take a look through our 6 point guide to make sure you’re getting the most out of your coin…
The 6 Point Guide to valuing your coins
1) How does your coin rate on the Scarcity Index?
The first step in our 6 point guide is to check your coin on our Scarcity Index. The Change Checker Scarcity Index tracks which coins are the most scarce and collectable using a unique combination of mintage, collecting and swap data to give the most up-to-date picture of the collecting market.
The higher the Scarcity Index score for your coin – the more sought-after it will be to collectors.
Our Scarcity Index is updated quarterly to ensure the information is always up to date.
2) How much is your coin selling for?
It can be difficult to work out an exact value of a coin, as this depends on so many variants. However, once you have completed point 1, you’ll have a better understanding of how collectable your coin might be.
The next step is to check previously sold items on auction sites such as eBay to see how much potential buyers are willing to pay. Luckily, we’ve done the hard work for you and have put together our eBay Tracker which takes the last 9 sold listings* on eBay for 10 of the UK’s most popular coins and banknotes and works out the median selling price.
Our eBay Tracker is updated every 6 months to give you the most up to date information.
*Note: It’s important to check ‘Sold listings’ rather than active listings, as the price a coin is listed for may not be the actual price it sells at.
View our latest eBay Tracker here >>
3) How easy is it to buy your coin?
If your coin can still be purchased in Brilliant Uncirculated quality from an official Royal Mint distributor, it’s unlikely that a collector would pay the same price for a circulation quality coin which might have imperfections.
4) What condition is your coin in?
Understandably, collectors are likely to pay a little extra for a coin in pristine condition, rather than a coin showing signs of wear and tear.
However, there are some rare coins (such as the 2002 Commonwealth Games Norther Ireland £2) which are very hard to find in good condition and yet they still fetch way above face value.
Familiarise yourself with different coin qualities and conditions to determine how much yours might be worth.
5) Does your coin have a story?
It’s often true that coins with an interesting story behind them are the hardest to get hold of and so it’s worth researching your coin on our Web App or checking out our blogs to see if you can find anything that stands out, or any interesting facts about the coin.
It’s also important to brush up on your knowledge of errors and mis-strikes which can occur on the coins in our change. Keen collectors will know that it’s worthwhile paying close attention to the small details on your coins as it’s the only way you can ever hope to spot an error or mis-strike.
Mistakes happen, and when it comes to coins, these mistakes can often be worth a lot money to eagle-eyed collectors.
Check out our video on the Top 5 Error Coins and Mis-strikes in Circulation >>
If you do need extra clarification on your coin, The Royal Mint offer an authentication service starting from £20 and will provide you with a letter to confirm the coin’s authenticity.
6) Where can you sell your coin?
Now that you have a better idea of how much you could sell your coin for and why – it’s time to find a seller that’s willing to pay! Coin dealers, auction sites, Facebook coin groups and eBay are your best bets.
You can contact a member of the British Numismatics Trade Association who will advise you on auctioning your coin, although they do charge for this service. If you’re selling on eBay, be sure to set a minimum price equal to or higher than the coin’s face value and be mindful that if your coin ‘sells’ at a high price, the sale may not actually go through.
Remember, your coin is legal tender and therefore will always be worth at least face value!
Sell or save?
So there you have our 6 point guide to help you work out how much your coin could be worth, you can now make an informed decision on whether you decide to sell or keep your coin. Perhaps you don’t want your collection to decrease in size, but you have some duplicate coins – you can swap with other collectors completely FREE via either the Change Checker Swap Centre or the Change Checker Community Group on Facebook.
Either way, I think you can agree that the buzz of finding rare coins in your change is second to none and one of the best hobbies to have!
Download the Change Checker Web App
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 to the FREE Change Checker Web App today >>
The United Kingdom coin struck in New York
Today I would like to tell you a fascinating story about a very limited edition United Kingdom coin struck in New York almost 60 years ago.
It is extremely rare that United Kingdom coins are struck anywhere other than in the UK, however the New York Exhibition in 1960 presented a rare opportunity for The Royal Mint to take their minting expertise overseas.
The New York Exhibition
Still struggling to recover from post-war austerity, the height of Great Britain as the dominant trading nation of the world seemed a distant memory in 1960.
Britain was desperate to revive its ability to trade internationally and so the New York Exhibition was organised to demonstrate the best of British manufacturing to the American market with the hope of increasing British exports to the United States.
The 1960 New York Exhibition Crown
The New York Exhibition Crown
A brand new coin was struck for the occasion and although it was somewhat overlooked in Britain at the time, it stands out today as one of the most interesting Royal Mint coins ever struck.
That is because although just over a million New York Exhibition crowns were minted in the UK, a very small number were struck at the exhibition in New York so that visitors could see the best of British manufacturing before their own eyes.
This limited edition coin was minted especially for the visitors to the exhibition and only 70,000 coins were struck – that is less than 7% of the mintage of the ordinary circulation version!
Could I own a limited edition New York crown?
Although they were struck with a specially polished die, there were no special mintmarks on the coins struck in New York making them extremely difficult to distinguish from the ordinary uncirculated version.
However, as the ordinary uncirculated coin was somewhat overlooked at the time in Britain it too has a surprisingly low mintage – less than a fifth of the 1953 Coronation Crown and less than 6% of the 1965 Churchill Crown.
Some of the unsold crowns minted at the exhibition were brought back to the UK by The Royal Mint, meaning that there are likely to be a small number of rare crown coins which were struck in New York buried in collections across the country.
This coin played a key role in boosting Britain’s trade relationship with the United States, and the fact that a very limited number were actually minted at the exhibition in New York makes it undoubtedly one of the most interesting UK coins of the 20th century.
Own the New York Exhibition Crown struck in uncirculated condition!
We are offering collectors the chance to own the New York Exhibition Crown struck in uncirculated condition (who knows, it might even be one of the rare coins that came back from New York!).
To secure your New York Exhibition Crown for just £19.99 (+p&p), click here >>