Royal Mint Fifty Pence Pieces

To start, although I deal in coins and therefore buy coins, I don't actively buy 50 pence pieces, or any decimal coins. If they are in collection of other coins, yes, I will probably include them in the offer, but otherwise no. Why? Because there's an awful lot of nonsense on the internet regarding scarcity, rarities, errors and certainly prices.

If you go unto any of the regular marketplaces such as Etsy and Ebay, you will find an awful lot of regular coins with silly prices. I think £8,000 is the limit I've seen for a Peter Rabbit. Most of these sites are pretty much unpoliced, with sellers asking what they like (which is entirely their choice) and describing how they like.

Lets talk rarity. Rarity comes down to a couple of main points. How many were minted (made)? How many are available in a particular condition, relative to how many were minted? These assumptions are based on standard coins intended for circulation, we'll come on to non circulating and special coins later on.

Until 2023, the lowest mintage of the modern, smaller, 50 pence pieces was the 2009 Kew Gardens at 210,000 pieces. When it came out, most people didn't realise it was released, and many didn't realise it was anything special, so they circulated for a while. a couple of years later, I would guess around the time of the 2012 Olympics, people suddenly became aware and they started popping up on auction sites for silly money. In good condition, you can get a few quid for these, frequently over £150

I say until 2023, because the Flora and Fauna collection coins entered circulation featuring the portrait of Charles III, with the Salmon 50 pence among them. I think this was a clever bit of marketing, but there were only 200,000 of these minted for circulation (there were more for sets, but again, I'll talk about those later.

Again, careful wording so far on "modern, smaller type". The lowest mintage 50 pence for circulation was one of the larger type from 1992. The Single Market 50 pence marking the UK presidency of the EU. Only 109,000 of these were made, without any fanfare, making them the rarest standard circulation issue by far.

Okay, so is 109,000 the lowest? For standard circulation coins, yes, but not for collectors sets or uncirculated issues. In 2019 the Royal Mint released a set of the popular 50p's together. This re-issue had the Kew Gardens in there, at a mintage of 84,681, lower than the original, but the rest of the set were similar numbers, so not that special.

The standout coin was the 2009 Athletics coin designed by a Blue Peter competition winner, Florence Jackson. There were only 19,722 of these minted. In 2011, the design was reused for the Olympic Athletics coin, but at a higher mintage of 2,224,000.

So that's standard and collectors sets, what about not standard? In 2011 the Royal Mint started to release the 2012 Olympic coins depicting different sports. Sets were also released and one included the Swimming coin that was a bit of a design fail with too many lines across the face making it unrecognisable. The Mint redesigned and re-issued this coin, but it's not known how many of the originals are around. This is arguably the most valuable at the moment.

On to the next point. How many are available in a particular condition, relative to how many were minted? Okay, crystal ball time. I would be willing to bet that there will be less almost uncirculated (probably the highest grade for a circulation coin) 2006 fifty pence's in 20 years' time than the Charles III coronation coin of 2023.

The Coronation coins are more likely to be picked from circulation, wrapped up and saved for the grandkids than the 2006 standard 50 pence. The Coronation coins was a mintage of 5,000,000 and the 2006 was 24,567,000, so almost 5x more. I would reckon it would be a minimum of 20x less likely to be preserved in the same way as the 2023 coin, hence there will be less in good condition in 20 years time.

So, to recap, I haven't mentioned the Peter Rabbit coins, as they are of little interest to me with mintages of 20,000,000ish a piece and most likely to be tucked away. The same for Paddington and various others. The Olympic coins are interesting and I do like to get some of those from time to time, but they sell better every fours years (strangely). Uncirculated sets or special issues aren't generally as sought after by collectors, me included. I tend to think of brilliant uncirculated issues as a bit of a non item. An item designed as the used pieces, but not intended for use. A friend used the term "foam hammer", it looks like a hammer, but isn't intended for that use.

I hope that clears up some questions regarding scarcity, which ultimately drives values. The standard issues in good condition may be of more interest to the collectors of the future. The most important thing, don't trust the multiple internet sellers hoping for a large score. The Olympic swimmers, the rarest of all 50p's, sell for up to £1,000 a piece. Thanks for reading, hopefully I'll be able to add some pictures later on.

Best wishes,

Damian