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Rare 50p Coin Minted For Kew Gardens Anniversary Fetches £200 On eBay

Rare 50p Coin Minted For Kew Gardens Anniversary Fetches £200 On eBay

Issued in 2009, the coin was designed by Christopher Le Brun, having been minted to mark the 250th anniversary of Kew Gardens

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

Many of the coins in your wallet or trouser pocket don't really combine to make a fortune, often amounting to the value of a packet of Munchies.

But sometimes you come across a coin that's worth significantly more, like this 50p piece that fetched £200 over on eBay - more than 400 times its face value.

Issued in 2009, the coin was designed by Christopher Le Brun, having been minted to mark the 250th anniversary of Kew Gardens.

The design shows the gardens' pagoda encircled by a vine, along with the dates 1759 and 2009 and the word 'Kew' at the base of the structure.

The 'Genuine 2009 Kew Gardens 50p coin in circulated condition' was listed on the auction site last week, ending the bidding on 30 July.

Royal Mint

After a total of 27 bids from 12 bidders, the coin ended up selling for £200, which certainly won't be a bad day at the office for seller JDL Antiques, based in Worthing, West Sussex.

The listing said: "Please find for up for auction this 2009 Genuine Kew Gardens 50p. Circulated condition."

The limited edited coin has been hot stuff for currency collectors since its issue, often topping rare coin indexes.

Money experts at ChangeChecker have also named it the most valuable 50p in recent years, with just 210,000 minted compared to a standard minting of around five million.

"It's estimated that just 1 in 300 people are likely to come across the Kew Gardens," ChangeChecker says.

"When you compare its scarcity to the average 5 million coins per design usually issued into circulation, you start to really understand just how rare this coin is."

eBay

In short, it's generally classed as a very valuable coin - hence why some keen sod was happy to whip it out of eBay's hands for a couple of hundred quid.

A full description of the coin on the Royal Mint website says: "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."

Featured Image Credit: eBay

Topics: UK News, News