‘Super-rare’ 50p piece could cost £825 to buy
A 50P COIN has been put up for sale on bidding website eBay for a staggering £825 – after its seller spotted a tiny defect.
Ebay user pumpkinmooncat, who got the Girl Guide coin in their change, said they noticed a small error on the back.
The coin, made at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, came out in 2010, to celebrate 100 years of the Girl Guides.
A description of the coin being auctioned on eBay reads: “An extremely rare 50p 2010 coin.
“Unique mis-shapen bottom left star and centre depressed star is a perfect star shape in centre small clover – this is not perfect on all coins, it is also a sign of authenticity.
“One of the rarest and most valuable 50p coins in circulation.”
A normal version of the Girl Guide 50p typically sells for around £4 on eBay.
While it’s relatively “rare”, there were still 7,410,090 of them struck in 2010.
For context, the rarest 50p in circulation is the 2009 Kew Gardens one, with just 210,000 minted.
However, errors can make coins a lot more special – with error coins frequently selling for hundreds of pounds.
The question in this case is whether the mis-formed star is enough to pique collectors’ interests.
Of course, just because items are priced at a certain level on auction sites, doesn’t mean they will fetch their full asking price.
It is also the case that buyers can pull out of sales.
The Girl Guiding 50p piece celebrated the 100th anniversary of the movement being founded, with the coin created by Jonathan Evans and Donna Hainan.
The reverse of the coin features the famous three leaf “trefoil” logo, which is the global symbol of Guiding and represents the three-fold promise.
Meanwhile, the coin experts at Change Checker worked out there are more than 59 50p coins out there that are classed as valuable.
But its scarcity index sees five coins marked out as special - which it says are “rare” based on the number of them that have been struck.
It’s no surprise to find Kew Gardens at the top of the list.
The next four scarcest coins are all from the 2012 Olympics – Football (1,125,500 in circulation), Triathlon (1,163,500 in circulation), Judo (1,161,500 in circulation) and Wrestling (1,129,500 in circulation).
The recent Beatrix Potter 50p coins also rank highly, with Jemima Puddle-Duck and Squirrel Nutkin coming in at numbers 6 and 7 – based largely on their low level of ownership and high swap requests, as official mintages are yet to be confirmed by the Royal Mint.