A 50p coin has sold for the whopping price of £950 on online auction site eBay.
The Kew Gardens 50p was created to celebrate one of London’s most stunning beauty sports.
KeW Gardens is recognisable for its pavilion, which is immortalised on the coin.
Is the coin very rare? Do you have one in your collection?
Seller “rosiwilco_0” described the coin as: “2009 Kew gardens 50p circulated coin very rare mintage 210,000 very nice coin for a collector VERY RARE.”
Pictures revealed the coin comes in a plastic casing to protect it.
Is the coin really worth £950? Other Kew Garden’s coins have sold on eBay in the past for £45, £75 and £98.
Coin collecting book ‘Spend It? Save It? What should you do?’ states the coin is worth £100.
The coin is rare. Coin collection website rates the 50p coin on the scarcity index at “100” meaning that is it very scarce.
In fact, this is thought to be the rarest 50p coin, which may justify the enormous cost of this piece.
Royal Mint said of the coin: “A design showing the pagoda encircled by a vine and accompanied by the dates ‘1759’ and ‘2009’, with the word ‘KEW’ at the base of the pagoda.”
“In 2009 the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew marked its 250th anniversary as a botanical garden and The Royal Mint was proud to join in the celebrations with a splendid commemorative design.
“The reverse design, created by Christopher Le Brun RA, featured the famous Chinese Pagoda at Kew with a decorative leafy climber twining in and around the tower.”
If you are thinking of selling or buying a rare coin it is advisable to talk to an expert first.
Another rare 50p coin has sold for a whopping £2,500.
The 2016 Beatrix Potter coin was created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter.
This particular version of the coin has been sold for the enormous sum.
But why is this? Is the coin really that rare and valuable?
Royal Mint said of the coin: “In 2016 The Royal Mint struck a series of coins to mark the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth, honouring the gifted artist and author.”
Which are the rarest £1, £2, 50p, 20p, 10p and 2p coins?
Rarest £2 coins
The rarest £2 coin is the 2002 Commonwealth Games NI coin with 485,500 in circulation. This is followed by the 2002 Commonwealth Games Wales which has 588,500 in circulation.
Next up is the 2015 Navy, and there are 650,000 in circulation.
Rarest £1 coins
The most rare £1 coins are all part of a series celebrating the British capitals.
The rarest of these is the 2011 Edinburgh coin, with 935,000 in circulation. Of the 2011 Cardiff coins there are 1,615,000 in circulation, while the 2010 London coin has 2,635,000 in circulation.
Rarest 50p coin
The rarest 50p coin is the Kew Gardens coin, which is also the rarest coin in circulation. It there were only 210,000 minted.
The football Olympic 50p coin has 1,125,500 in circulation, and the wrestling coin has 1,129,500 in circulation.
It is not so easy to evaluate the rarest 20p coins, 10p coins and even 2p coins as exact circulation figures are not known.
However, various versions of the coins are known to sell for large sums.
These include the dateless 20ps, which are actually part of a run from 2008. There may be between 50,000 and 200,000 of these coins in circulation.
The 1983 ‘New Pence’ 2p coin can also sell for a huge sum, up to £650.