All Brits are being urged to check their change for a 50p coin that is selling for over £150. We've all got bits of spare change dotted about the place - whether it be in your handbag, car, wallet, or down the back of the sofa - but it could be worth a lot more than you first thought.
Money website Change Checker has issued a list of the UK’s most sought-after coins in circulation in the last three months. The list gives an idea of which coins are currently worth more than their face value due to popularity or rarity.
The list is broken down into three sections: the rarest 50 pence pieces, A to Z 10p coins and £2s currently in circulation. The Kew Gardens 50p has once again topped the most wanted 50p coin index.
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According to the Change Checker eBay tracker, this particular coin fetches an average of £156 on the auction site - but there have been examples of it selling for as much as £250. While there have been no changes amongst the top runners for each of the indexes, there are some notable shuffles amongst the medium ranks with certain coins jumping as many as 14 places.
There are also two new 50p editions in circulation following this year’s 50th anniversary of Pride and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Here is the latest Scarcity Index broken down:
Rarest 50p coins - worth up to £156
The Kew Gardens 50p has once again topped the rarest 50 pence piece list - so it's worth keeping an eye out for one of these coins. This coin was released in 2009 to mark 250 years since Kew Gardens opened in 1759, and there are only 210,000 in circulation.
Created by Christopher Le Brun RA, it features the famous Chinese Pagoda from the gardens being intertwined by a leafy climber. According to the Coinhunter website, this particular coin fetches an average of £156 on eBay - but we’ve previously seen them sell for as much as £200.
The next most sought-after coin is the 2011 triathlon 50p, which has climbed five places on the Index. Released as part of the 2012 London Olympics collection, there are around 1,163,500 of these in circulation, with its design featuring someone running, cycling and swimming.
Experts say these can sell for around £11 on eBay however they have been given a collector’s value of £8.25 - not bad for a coin only worth 50p. The Paddington at the Palace 50p has also climbed an impressive 14 places - perhaps owing to Paddington’s appearance at Her Majesty’s Party at the Palace in June.
The price range for the coin in good condition is between £1.24 and £1.43. Two new 50p coins have also been issued in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee and the anniversary of Pride.
Ahead of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend, the Royal Mint issued a further 1 million Platinum Jubilee 50p coins into circulation, meaning there are now a total of 2.3 million out there. In celebration of 50 years since the first UK Pride Event, there are now 5 million Pride 50p coins in circulation.
While it is too soon to see the effect that these coins will have on the 50p Scarcity Index, it is likely that they will cause a significant shake up as more people discover these coins in their change.
Rare 10p coins - worth up to £7.50
The 10p list is made of the alphabet A to Z collection, released in 2018 and 2019 to celebrate all things British. There are 26 coins in the set to correspond with the 26 letters in the alphabet.
There are only 304,000 of each design in circulation and so they are incredibly rare to come across regardless of the letter. The whole uncirculated collection could be purchased for £52 from The Royal Mint when it was first released.
The rarest one from that collection is now R for Robin, launched to celebrate the much-loved red breast bird. After climbing three places, the Robin 10p takes the top spot again.
Its design features a robin sitting in the letter R with snowflakes falling around it. Around 284,000 have been released into circulation in total, and you can buy one from Coin Hunter for £7.50 plus delivery.
Next on the list is W for World Wide Web, which was previously in the top ten on the last Scarcity Index. This coin has the letter W surrounded by a spiderweb.
Some 283,000 were issued for circulation in 2018, and we've spotted one that sold for £5 online in recent weeks. Elsewhere on the index, the Fish and Chips 10p has climbed 8 spots and has a collector’s value of £3. Other key movers include the Postbox and Union Jack 10p coins, which have moved 8 and 9 places respectively.
Rarest £2 coins - worth up to £50
The top three coins in terms of the rarest £2 pieces are once again all from the Commonwealth Games 2002 collection. However, the Commonwealth Games Wales £2 has also bumped back up into the top five after coming in 11 last time.
The XVII Commonwealth Games £2 coins dated 2002 were created to mark the seventeenth games which were hosted in Manchester from 25th July 2002. The most sought-after is the Northern Ireland version, followed by Scotland and England.
All the different editions feature the same base design and you can only identify them by their respective flag. If you've got the Northern Ireland version, of which there are 485,500 in circulation, they're currently selling for around £50 on eBay.
in terms of the England and Scotland editions, there are 650,500 and 771,750 copies in circulation, which could fetch around £17 to £20 on eBay.
Each of the coins are selling for £55 from the London Coin Company. Between England and Wales, in fourth, there is the Olympic Handover £2. The Wireless Transmission £2 coin has also made a climb up the board by 14 places.
The coin honours Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian physicist, who in 1901 succeeded in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean. This disproved theories that the curvature of the earth would limit the transmission to 200 miles or less.
There have been 4,558,000 in circulation since 1997 and they are going for around £10 on eBay. Other coins to watch include the DNA £2, which has climbed by 5 places, and the Britannia £2, which climbed by 4.
