Royal Mint’s rarest 50p coin sells for 200 TIMES its face value after eBay bidding war – check your spare change now
A SPECIAL 50p coin that’s the Royal Mint’s rarest has sold for more than 200 times its face value after it sparked an eBay bidding war.
The uncommon piece was targeted by three buyers who put in a total of 9 bids over the week long auction.
The mini bidding war over the King Charles III Atlantic Salmon 50p began with the price at just £75.
However, over the course of the auction, the bidders pushed the cost of the coin all the way up to £111.
This final figure means it sold for a whopping 222 times its face value.
The coin features an engraving of an Atlantic salmon leaping from the ocean, and was part of a special series released by the Royal Mint in November 2023.
The minters also recently named the coin as the rarest currently in circulation in the UK, with just 200,000 copies made.
It dethroned the “highly collectable” 2009 Kew Gardens 50p off the top spot for the first time in 15 years, the mint said.
Earlier this month, a pair of the coins sold for an eye-watering £210.74, also on eBay.
The November 17 eBay sale involved two coins in a sealed bag, both without the Tudor crown privy mark, which collectors prize most highly.
Christopher Collects of The Britannia Coin Company said: “The 2023 Atlantic Salmon 50p is the rarest 50p coin out in circulation now.
“It is rarer than the highly sought-after Kew Gardens 50p, which is why it is selling for large sums of money.
“It is worth mentioning that there are two versions though, so you need to be careful when buying it.
“They look very similar, but one has a little Tudor crown privy mark, which is the version sold in annual coin sets.
“The one put into circulation does not have this privy mark.
“It is the circulated version without the privy mark that is attracting the largest premiums, so make sure you check before spending!”
Described by the Royal Mint as “the nation’s most collectable coin”, the 50p has seen over 100 different designs appear on its reverse since its introduction.
Out of the 10 rarest 50p pieces in circulation, six are related to the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, with Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny coins from 2018 both also making the list.
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