The rare Kew Gardens 50p coin is hugely popular, and consequently, there are many fakes in circulation. Here’s how to tell whether you have the real deal.
The Kew Gardens 50p is one of the best-known rare coins around.
Comparative Rarity Score is a measure of coins availability in comparison to other 50p coin designs. High scores in themselves do not mean there is a small number of a coin in existence, just that the coins do not come up in general circulation very often. The number of coins that enter circulation is shown where available.
Rare 50p coin sells for £202 on eBay - and there are 210,000 more out there Brilliant uncirculated coins are specially struck and handled by The Royal Mint to ensure the pristine unblemished. This website is created and dedicated for rare collectable 50p coins information, date and value for collectors and mintage value, origins, dates and estimated worth of these beautiful 50p coins.
The value of rare 50p coin is measured on the scarcity index at changechecker.org, which tracks which circulating coins are the most scarce and collectable. According to the site, the most sought after version of the seven-sided coin is the Kew Gardens design, which typically is sold on eBay for up to £160. NO not a chance, in my opinion not when you take into account the 2012 Olympic Aquatic 50p and that 2009 anniversary 50p proof set which Only sold 1,039 sets and 15 of the 16 coins in the set are more rare than the Kew Gardens coin that is also in the set.
With a sale of a Kew Gardens 50p for £91 on eBay in May (read here for why sales rather than listings are important), it’s no wonder collectors love this coin.
Plus, because it was only produced in 2009, it’s possible that you have one in your wallet.
Unfortunately, although 210,000 of these coins were originally issued, there’s a large number of fakes out there in circulation.
We’ve teamed up with the Fake Pound Coin Database to tell the fakes from the real deal.
If you think you’ve got another rare 50p coin or a rare £1 coin, click on the links to find out more.
The real deal
Firstly, (re)acquaint yourself with what a genuine Kew Gardens coin looks like:
The fakes
Spotting a fake is tricky because there’s a wide variety of them.
Rare 50p Coins Uk
Below are just a few of the examples listed by the Fake Pound Coin Database, with notes below on why they’re fakes.
The frosted portrait and design is a giveaway that this is a fake – however, there are also design elements in the pagoda and Queen’s head (explained below).
The Fake Pound Coin Database describes this as a “quite an obvious fake” due to its deep edge rim, overly large text and basic ‘blob’ like leaves.
The slightly gold colour of this coin reveals it to be a fake.
Spotting a fake: the pagoda
Fakes contain a number of giveaways when you look at the design of the pagoda on the tails side.
At the top of the pagoda, an overly pointy roof can be a sign of a fake – refer back to the genuine Kew Gardens 50p above to compare.
At the base of the pagoda, there shouldn’t usually be any lines around the word ‘Kew’ - although a few real coins still carry these lines.
Spotting a fake: the Queen
Start with the Queen’s neckline.
A genuine Kew Gardens 50p has the right base of the neck pointing towards the P in PENCE. Fakes sometimes get this wrong.
Then look at the designers’ initials, ‘the IRB’. If you see the word ‘COPY’ beside the initials, or if the IRB is too big, you are looking at a fake.
If it turns out you have a fake, then remember it’s illegal to use it or sell it on; unfortunately, there’s very little you can do about fakes, which is why it’s so important to check coins first.
© Provided by The i The famous Kew Gardens 50p coin remains the most coveted in circulation, with a mintage of just 210,000 (Photo: PA)The Royal Mint has revealed the rarest 50p coins in circulation, presumably fuelling a desperate rummage down the back of the nation’s sofas.
It released the top 10 rankings ahead of the 50th anniversary of decimalisation, which comes on 15 February – the Decimal Day changeover of 1971 inspired many people to become coin collectors over the years.
Top spot is claimed by the famous Kew Gardens 50p, which was released in 2009 to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Its mintage of just 210,000 coins puts it well ahead of the competition, which is dominated by the Olympic-themed 50ps minted in 2011.
© Provided by The i The Kew Gardens 50p coin has long been a favourite of collectors (Photo: PA)Olympic and Beatrix Potter 50p coins among the rarest
The rarest of the sports honoured in this collection are wrestling, football, judo and triathlon, all with fewer than 1.2 million coins minted.
Also making the top 10 are the Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny 50ps from the Beatrix Potter collection of 2018.
In 2019 more than 500 million coins were released into circulation, including three new 50p designs celebrating Arthur Conon Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and Paddington Bear at St Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London.
The Royal Mint’s director of UK currency Mark Loveridge said: “Coin collecting remains as popular as ever, and we were delighted to release a number of special designs into circulation in 2019.
“The Kew Gardens (50p) remains the most coveted coin, with a mintage of just 210,000, but it’s always exciting to find a special design in your change.”
© Provided by The i Beatrix Potter coins such as the Peter Rabbit 50p are among the rarest in circulation (Photo: PA)What are the rarest 50p coins in circulation?
Rare 50p Coins In Circulation
Here are the rarest 50p designs in circulation, with their year and their total mintage, according to the Royal Mint:
1. 2009 Kew Gardens, 210,000
2. 2011 Olympic Wrestling, 1,129,500
=3. 2011 Olympic Football, 1,161,500
=3. 2011 Olympic Judo, 1,161,500
5. 2011 Olympic Triathlon, 1,163,500
=6. 2018 Peter Rabbit, 1,400,000
=6. 2018 Flopsy Bunny, 1,400,000
8. 2011 Olympic Tennis, 1,454,000
Rare 50p Coins Worth Money
9. 2011 Olympic Goalball, 1,615,500
10. 2011 Olympic Shooting, 1,656,500
Are the rare 50p coins valuable?
The rare coins website Change Checker has a recently updated eBay tracker, which claims that some 50p coins can fetch significant sums in the secondary sale market.
This reports that the rarest 2009 Kew Gardens coin sold for an average of £156 over the auction website’s nine most recent listings, while the Olympic Football 50p fetched an average of £13.
Other 50p coins making the top 10 on Change Checker’s tracker are the 2018 Sir Isaac Newton coin and the Jemima Puddle Duck from the Beatrix Potter collection.
It should be pointed out, as the website states, the market in supposedly valuable coins “can be a bit of a minefield,” and it’s important to do your research before being taken in by viral stories of coins fetching huge sums.
Last year, for example, various reports claimed a Battle of Hastings 50p sold for £63,000 on eBay, supposedly because it was “very rare”.
This coin was launched in 2016 to commemorate the famous battle’s 950th anniversary, with as many as 6.7 million entering circulation.
Speaking to The Mirror, Alexandra Fiddons from Change Checker wasn’t able to explain exactly why the coin would sell for such a purportedly high fee, but said that sometimes “random coins” do reach surprising prices.
She pointed out that other versions of it were selling for just £2 on eBay, concluding: “We often have random coins that we don’t expect to take off that much and sometimes they just skyrocket. That could be the explanation here.”
While some coins can fetch sums comfortably above their 50p value, often it is “error coins” – versions which found their way into circulation after being minted with mistakes – which are particularly valued by collectors.