Platinum Jubilee 50p coin: How much are they worth?

I recently received a Platinum Jubilee 50p coin when I was buying something in a shop – I still like to pay with notes and coins for budgeting reasons.

I also quite enjoy picking out the unusual and exciting looking 50p coins. I have one of the Kew Gardens ones.

Are these Platinum Jubilee coins selling for big bucks online, and if not, are they worth holding onto and could they grow in value like the Kew Gardens Holy Grail? Via email.

Ed Magnus of This is Money replies: As of 7 February only 1.3million of these coins entered Post Office tills across Britain.

It puts the Platinum Jubilee 50p among the rarest 50p coins to have entered into circulation – only bettered by the infamous 2009 Kew Gardens 50p, of which there are only 210,000 minted, and five of the Olympic themed 50p coins – minted in the run up to the London Olympics in 2012.

It means if the mintage were to remain at 1.3 million it would be the rarest 50p coin circulated in the last decade.

However, the Royal Mint has set the maximum mintage for the coin at 5,000,070, which could mean the rarity factor could be diminished if more coins are minted in the future.

The Olympics football 50p still sells on the secondary market for around £20 according to Change Checker.

It’s worth noting that the 50p has two versions – one includes an obverse design featuring the Queen on horseback (this one won’t turn up in your change) and the other is of the Queen’s portrait.  

The reverse side features the number 70 with the Royal Cypher and dates of the Queen’s reign inside the zero.

The Platinum Jubilee could hold extra sway for coin enthusiasts given the fact it is the only 50p coin ever minted to mark a royal event – not least because it celebrates the 70 years spent on the throne by Britain’s longest serving monarch.

To buy a 50p coin from the Royal Mint struck in brilliant uncirculated standard, which is a finer finish than circulating coins, will cost you £7.

According to the website Change Checker, both versions of the Platinum 50p coins are proving incredibly popular with collectors.

It says that demand has been driven up by the significance of the anniversary and the fact that many of us are unlikely to see a Jubilee anniversary again in our lifetime.

However, that demand does not appear to be translating into sky high prices just yet.

Using eBay’s sold listings of the circulated version you will be able to get an indication of the actual price your coin is selling for on the open market, not just the prices sellers are listing them for.

There are plenty of circulated and uncirculated Platinum Jubilee 50p coins selling at around the £2 mark on ebay.

A quick scour on eBay suggests that you might be slightly disappointed by the returns on offer.

There are plenty of circulated and uncirculated Platinum Jubilee 50p coins selling at around the £2 mark on eBay.

In contrast, the rarest 50p coin, the Kew Gardens 50p, which you also have in your collection, can be found selling for over 160 times its face value on eBay.

To help in answering our reader’s email, we spoke to Philip Mussell, a coin expert and the author of Spend it? Save It?

Should our reader cash in or hold?

The 2009 Kew Gardens is the rarest 50p around.

Philip Mussell replies: The Platinum Jubilee 50p coins are proving very popular at the moment.

Released earlier this year the coin, with a big number ’70’ on the reverse to represent the number of years Her Majesty the Queen has been on the throne, is one of those coins that is a commemorative, but it is also designed for circulation, meaning you can find them in your change.

If you’re lucky enough to do so, you could well find that there’s a market for it among collectors and that, to some, it’s worth more than 50p.

The reason for that is simple, people are impatient and they don’t want to wait until they get one in their change before they add it to their collection, and so are happy to pay more than face value to secure one.

However, that won’t always be the case. As more and more get issued so more and more collectors will find them on their own and will have no need to buy one for more than 50p.

So if you want to ‘cash in’ it’s probably a case of sooner rather than later as, once the jubilee celebrations in June are over people will move on to the next thing.

The Kew Gardens 50p only became very sought after once its rarity became known. The Royal Mint revealed just 210,000 were struck in 2014.

It’s highly unlikely these coins will ever be worth as much as the fabled Kew Gardens 50p simply because of numbers.

The reason the ‘Kew’ coin is worth so much – anything up to £100 – is that there were only 200,000 minted in total so it’s very unlikely you’ll get one from a shop or even a bank.

We don’t yet know how many Platinum Jubilee coins will be issued yet, but they are already six times’ the number compared to the Kew coins in circulation.

The coin website Change Checker releases a ‘scarcity index’ every so often which instead lists coins by how in-demand they are among collectors