Our change is as good as the best

Olympic swimming coin mark the 25th anniversary of EEC membership in 1998. Others marked the Royal Air Force’s centenary, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s platinum wedding anniversary, and the 1966 football World Cup. There was even a limited edition coin celebrating the 50p piece turning 50.

It featured an updated version of the inaugural design, created by Christopher Ironside and carried a minting first – a special privy mark struck on the outer rim of the reverse of the coin which references the below, the rarer 2016 Peter Rabbit 50p science behind its shape, known as the “equilateral curve heptagon”.

The coin was released in October last year and can be purchased online from the Royal Mint and at the visitor centre in Llantrisant, South Wales. Prices start from £10. Over the 50 years, the 50p has featured more than 60 designs on the reverse, commemorating the military, key political moments, sporting achievements and many other aspects of British culture.

So which ones should we be looking out for in our small change? Rarest and most sought after of all is the one created to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Royal Botanic Gardens in 2009.

Depicting Kew’s famous pagoda, it was minted in a relatively small batch of only 210,000 and can fetch around £80. A rare limited edition silver uncirculated proof version sold for £400 in an auction in 2018. The 2012 London Olympics produced a huge range of twenty nine 50p designs, each representing a different sport and these are increasingly scarce. Last year, the swimmer coin sold in an online auction for a staggering £590.

However, it was one of only 600 which showed the swimmer’s face obscured by wavy lines representing water. The design was subsequently amended to show the athlete in action but in a less obscured view.

Coins representing football (explaining the offside rule), judo, triathlon, and wrestling respectively top the list with values ranging from £25. Less rare examples care worth around £7-£8, depending on condition.

Continually popular are the various coins in the Beatrix Potter range, first minted in 2016 to mark 150 years since the author’s birth, although some have been released later.

Naturally enough, the Peter Rabbit, Flopsy Bunny and Jemima Puddle Duck coins are the rarest and most sought after. A 2016-minted coin showing Peter’s head and shoulders is worth £10-12, while a 2019 version showing him full length can be had for £4.50.

The other characters have values ranging from £2-£4, about the same value as other less valuable designs including tributes to the NHS, Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, the Girl Guides, Scouting, Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile, and the Victoria Cross.

And what of the new Brexit 50p? Aside from the controversy over whether or not the inscription “Peace, prosperity and friendship to all nations” needed an Oxford comma, don’t hold your breath.

With 10 million in circulation by the end of the year, one of only three commemorative 50ps to be minted in such a high number since 2015, it’ll be worth only face value. Look out instead for one with either of the two wrong dates!

The 50p celebrating our entry into the EEC The 2016 Jemima Puddle Duck coin The rarest, most sought-after 50p marks the 250th anniversary of Kew Gardens The Olympic football 50p explaining the offside rule, and

COINS struck by the Royal Mint but never put into circulation can have staggering values if they ever come onto the market. This 1937 pattern penny was made as a trial ahead of Edward VIII’s abdication in December 1936 but never released for circulation. A set of Edward VIII pattern coins was added to the Royal Collection but the remainder were stored in a safe of the The 1937 pattern penny made as a trial ahead of Edward VIII’s abdication, which sold for £111,000. deputy master of the Royal Mint and not rediscovered until his death in 1950. It was then that a second set of coins was created. Some were given to the British Museum and the Royal Mint and a few changed hands with collectors privately. Edward, then the Duke of Windsor, also asked for a set of “his coins” but his request was declined. The 1937 penny, last sold in 1978, fetched £111,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at London specialist auctioneers Spink. The current world record for a British penny is held by the 1933 coin of Edward VllI’s father King George V, which last changed hands in New York in 2016 for the equivalent of £150,000.

Gold and silver uncirculated proof withdrawal from the European Union 50 pences. The limited edition of 1,500 of the former, price £945, is sold out

The 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross from 2006

The clearer second version of the 2012

The 2018 Flopsy Bunny coin