Royal Mint unveils 10 rarest 50p coins with some worth thousands
Rare and valuable coins could be lurking in your wallet worth hundreds of times more than the 50p you might use it for. The Royal Mint issued their latest list of top 10 rarest 50p coins currently still in circulation which are usually collector items with unique commemorative designs, and these aren’t nearly as old as people think.
In fact, the 50p coin was only introduced in 1969 and these original coins are the most valuable, often selling for hundreds of thousands of pounds according to the Express. Most of the other more valuable coins aren’t nearly as vintage, with the oldest on the Royal Mint’s dating back to 2009 as it gets its value from how few were minted in the first place.
Because of this, the rarest coin on the official list is actually from 2023. The Atlantic Salmon was minted after King Charles III’s accession, marking one of eight new designs to mark the occasion. However, what makes the salmon more valuable than the rest is that only 200,000 coins were created.
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According to the Britannia Coin Company, the Atlantic Salmon coin has been sold for around £150, or 300 times its face value. This makes it the most valuable 50p coin currently in circulation, surpassing the Kew Gardens coin which held this title since 2009.
210,000 Kew Garden design shows the Royal Botanical Garden’s famous Chinese Pagoda with a leafy vine climbing up around it. It was incredibly valuable to collectors over its 14-year reign as the rarest 50p coin and reportedly fetched up to £700.
Other unique designs that fetch a pretty penny is the Peter Rabbit collection. The titular Peter Rabbit design had the famous bunny chowing down some radishes and the Flopsy Bunny coin shows the iconic bunny crossing her paws across her chest, commemorating the legacy of Beatrix Potter. 1.4 million of each coin was minted with one of the Peter Rabbit coins listed for £26,000 on eBay.
The two hares mark seventh and eighth on the Royal Mint’s list of rare 50p coins while the rest of the top 10 are occupied by coins minted for the 2011 Olympics. This includes designs for the specific sports, in order of rarity, Football, Wrestling, Judo, Triathlon, Tennis and Goalball.
Just 1,125,500 of the Olympic Football 50p coins were minted in 2011 and the design uses a diagram of a football field to explain the offside rule. The wrestling coin minted just a few more at 1,129,500 and shows two sportspeople in an intense grapple with one on the right hand side about to pinned to the floor.
The Olympic Judo coin has sold for around £15 in the past and looks remarkably similar to the Wrestling Coin but shows two sportspeople in detailed Judo uniforms grappling each other as the one on the left hand side is about to be pinned to the floor.
1,163,500 Triathlon coins were minted ahead of the 2012 London Olympics and shows three silhouettes performing each of the three events in the sport. Like most other Olympic coins on this list, the Triathlon design has fetched £15 in the past, roughly 30 times its face value.
The Olympic Tennis coin shows a tennis ball passing over a net and had 1,454,000 minted in 2011 making it just slightly less rare than the Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny coins. Finally, the last coin on the Royal Mint’s list shows Goalball, a sport in the Paralympics for visually impaired athletes, and shows a blindfolded sportsperson sweeping the ball around them. With 1,615,500 in circulation this coin has earned £10 and more in previous sales.
