Time to check your pockets! 50p with image of Kew Gardens pagoda is collectors’ ‘Holy Grail’ and now worth £100
- Coin was launched in 2009 to mark 250 years since Kew Gardens opened 1759
- Today it is valued at £100.50 making it the scarcest coin ever to be circulated
- Only 210,000 Kew Gardens coins were minted, when others had more than 1m
- The next most vaulable 50p is that minted for 2012 Olympics football at £11.20
A 50p coin featuring an image of the pagoda at Kew Gardens is worth more than 200 times its face value, making it the most valuable in circulation.
The coin was launched in 2009 to mark 250 years since the west London institution opened in 1759.
Today it is valued at £100.50 making it the scarcest coin ever to be circulated.
A 50p coin featuring an image of the pagoda at Kew Gardens is worth more than 200 times its face value, making it the most valuable in circulation
Only 210,000 Kew Gardens 50p coins were minted. In comparison every single other circulating 50p has a mintage of more than one million.
The next most vaulable 50p is that minted for the 2012 Olympics football featuring an explanation of the offside rule. It is valued at £11.20.
Other 2012 Olympics 50p coins also exceed their face value. the judo one is worth £8.14, the triathlon coin is worth £8.71 and the wrestling 50p piece is worth £5.90.
Consumer website Which? used coin website Change Checker’s ‘scarcity index’ to find the most-in-demand 10p, 50p and £2 coins of the year and how much they have sold for on eBay.
The index is based on mintage figures plus how many of each design is listed as collected by members and the number of times a design has been requested as a swap.
Which? says this will give an indication of the current level of collector demand.
Prices are an average of what each of the five circulating coins most recently sold for at auction on eBay.
The coin (pictured) was launched in 2009 to mark 250 years since Kew Gardens opened in 1759
The most valuable 10p coin has a James Bond theme and features the letter B and 007. It is worth £2.60.
Next is a 10p coin featuring the Angel of the North sculpture worth £2.93, followed by the Yeoman Warder (£2.45), zebra crossing (£2.27) and finally an English breakfast (£1.66).
The rarest £2 coins all stem from the Commonwealth Games in 2002.
The most valuable is the Northern Ireland coin at £29.73, followed by Scotland (£12.69), England (£11.82) and Wales £10.80.
A £2 coin to commemorate the 2012 London handover to Rio is worth £4.10. Several 50p coins have been released this year.
However, it is impossible to know how rare they are and their value as mintage figures have not been released.
Which? said: ‘The Kew Gardens 50p sells for so much because there is almost no chance of finding one in your change today. If you want one for your collection, purchasing one is the most effective way to get it.
Which? said investing in rare coins is risky.
It said: ‘Even though some coins have increased in value over time, there is absolutely no guarantee this this will happen with any coin.
‘Some eBay sellers seek to inflate prices by creating fake listings or placing their own bids.’