Around 70% of our emails and phone calls each day start off with ‘I have this rare 50p’ or similar, and we get some 250 emails a day!
Mintage of currency version 19,900,000 – on eBay for £15,086.86 (Seeding Scam)
As you may or may not be aware, the value of any coin/medal/token/Banknotes relies on three main criteria.
1) The rarity of the item, how many were minted and how many are known to remain.
2) The condition of the coin. In most cases baring exceptionally rare items, the condition needs to be excellent to attract the higher prices. The difference between an average coin and an excellent one of the same type, can see a variation in hundreds if not thousands of pounds in value.
3) The metal it is made from. As you might expect, Gold, Platinum and Silver have a metal value even if the coin is in poor condition.
Scams, Myths and Misinformation:
The ‘New ‘ Pence con trick
The Seeding Scam
The Upside down edge lettering myth
Modern Circulating Decimal Coins
In recent times the Royal Mint has seen itself put under considerable pressure to produce ‘commemorative type coins’ in comparison with the older style one design type. This coupled with cut backs particularly in quality control, has seen considerably more of these ‘error’ types entre into circulation.
There has been much hype driven by the press and eBay as to expectation of high values for these coins ‘Commemorative’ and ‘Error’ coins, coupled with numerous copies coming in from China and elsewhere. It is also worth saying, that in 2016 the Royal Mint Demonetized all commemorative coins, which effectively rendered the base metal versions (such as the crowns) worthless.
But the reality I am afraid, is that these coins were minted in their millions and are simply not as scarce as people think. As a curiosity and to a ‘Commemorative’ collector they may achieve a little above face value, but really only on eBay (be aware that silly ‘asking prices’ will never actually sell) the two genuine exceptions to this is the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p and the 2012 ‘hidden swimmer’. This 2009 having a lower mintage, but still 210,000 and they regularly sell for between £80 and £120 at auction, the 2012 can make £2,000+.
Modern ‘errors’ on eBay generally only achieve £10 to £20 at most, despite some of the high prices being asked (but not achieved) for them. It is also worth noting that many of the supposed errors are not errors at all, but due to minting techniques, such as the ‘Upside Down’ edge wording. These are in fact equally spread and are due to the way in which the minted coin ‘falls’ into the edge press.
However, ultimately the Royal Mint is the final arbiter and you may wish to contact them as well. They will be able to explain the error if it is a genuine one and confirm or otherwise that it emanated from the Royal Mint itself.
If they do confirm that it is genuine, they will provide you with a letter confirming this and that letter will give confidence to potential buyers when you come to sell it. We have found in the auctions that we run and consult on, that the letter is worth a 50% uplift in the sale price, so it is well worth getting this done.
Their contact details are to be found here: https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/quick-links/contact-us/
The ‘New ‘ Pence con trick
When the new decimalised currency was introduced officially in 1971, all of the coins had the word ‘NEW’ on them and in 1971 specifically, around 1.5 Billion of each of the 1 and 2 pence coins were minted. This making them the most common coin issued for the series thus far.
1971 One New Pence – 1,521,666,250 Minted 1971 Two New Pence – 1,454,856,250 Minted
eBay seller – £100,086.86 eBay seller – £30,086.68
The Royal Mint decided to continue with the word ‘New’ for a period of 10 years, before removing it from the coinage in 1982. However in 1983 the Royal Mint inadvertently used the old die in error for a sample of the 2 pence’s and before it was noticed these had gone into circulation It is these that are rare and command a few hundred pound if you can find them.
I have also included below some information on other myths surrounding modern currency coins that you might find helpful.
In specific regard to 50p and £2 coins, these were issued in their million, so like pretty much every other modern currency coin they are not in an way rare and as such do not have any investment or numismatic value other than 50p or £2 respectively. But due to sheer collectors hype on eBay, you may get £2 or £3 for them there, from someone who is simply wanting to have a set. You might say that this is not a bad return. But for genuine Numismatists these are simply for spending as they were made to be used. As such, your 50p is worth just 50p when it boils down to it.
The Seeding Scam
You will sometimes see coins for sale at very high prices, sometimes £3,000.00, £5,000.00 or even £7,000.00 or more. This is called ‘seeding’ where a con artist puts on a currency coin for a lot of money hoping people will see it. They then a week later put more on at say £30 – £300 hoping people who have seen the £3,000.00 listing then buy it thinking they have a bargain.
Online auctions say that this is not illegal as they are entitled to charge what they like for their goods, but we believe it completely lack morality.
The Upside down edge lettering myth
Depending on the denomination, some coins will have edge lettering to help against counterfeiting. What you may not know though, is the edge lettering is applied before the coin has even been struck which is why some coins can end up with the edge lettering either way around. These are not errors, but simply the minting process.
The exception to the above is the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p which sells from between £60 and £120 and Olympics Aquatics (withdrawn version) of the 50p which might achieve £500 – £800 and one early on it its discovery achieving £3,000. But I suspect that is very much an exception to the rule. It is estimated that at least 600 failed to be returned to the mint and therefore it is not unfeasible you have one of these.
The one on the left is the valuable one. There is much hype and misinformation on both eBay and in the press. These types of enquiries now make up around 70% of enquires dealers receive.
Due to this we do not deal in circulating base metal currency coins, the only Decimal commemorative type coins we do deal in are the Proof Silver/Gold/Platinum varieties as our Clients are more academic collectors and investors.
I hope that you find this useful
