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This year will see the Olympics head to Tokyo and with it, a new coin from the Royal Mint.
It has unveiled several new coin designs which will appear throughout 2020, with the most notable one commemorating Team GB.
However, in order to get access to obtain the coin – which will likely spur interest from collectors – you’ll need to buy a £55 set of five uncirculated coins.
The Tokyo 2020 50p, which will not be available to purchase individually nor initially released into circulation. Instead those after it will have to buy a 5-coin set for £55
The Tokyo 50p, which features the Team GB lion, the Olympic rings and sports including sailing, basketball, equestrian, football and cycling, is only initially available as part of a commemorative set.
As such, it won’t be a circulated coin that could end up in your change and cannot be bought individually.
The other coins in the set depict the 75th anniversary of VE Day, which occurs on 8 May and the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower from Plymouth to Provincetown.
It will also have a £2 coin for the centenary of Agatha Christie’s first novel, and a £5 coin for the 200th anniversary of the end of the reign of George III.
The brilliant uncirculated set costs £55, while precious metal sets, which appear to be silver and gold proof versions, will also be for sale.
A £5 coin commemorating the 200th anniversary of the end of the reign of George III, and £2 coins depicting VE Day, the voyage of the Mayflower and Agatha Christie are the other coins in the 5-coin special set
However, the prices and numbers of sets available for these latter two have not yet been disclosed.
The Royal Mint will also launch a separate collection containing an uncirculated 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coin (pictured above right) costing £30.
The news that the Tokyo 2020 50p coin will not be released into circulation, at least not initially, is a blow for collectors.
Over the last few years, coins depicting popular children’s book characters like Peter Rabbit and Paddington Bear – which have been released into circulation – have caused large numbers of the public to check their change and write in to This is Money asking if what they’ve discovered is valuable.
The sets will be available in brilliant uncirculated, as well as silver and gold proof versions. The price and availability of the precious metal sets have not yet been disclosed
And while it is possible that those after the Tokyo 50p may overpay on eBay for the coin until it is released to buy individually later on in the year, if you check your wallet you may find yourself in luck and discover a valuable coin from a previous Olympics.
This is because in the run up to the 2012 Olympics the Royal Mint created 29 different 50p coins and released them into circulation.
As part of the countdown to London hosting the 2012 Olympics, the Royal Mint released 29 50p coins, each of which displayed a different Olympic event
Each one commemorated a different event and, though they didn’t cover each one that took place, the list is fairly comprehensive.
More importantly for collectors and fortune hunters, the Mint did not create the same number of coins for each design.
More than twice the number of 50p coins depicting archery were created as those which displayed triathlon, for example.
Though Change Checker say an estimated three quarters of all the minted coins have been removed from circulation due to their popularity, you may have got lucky, or may still do so.
For those who have one, or are looking to work out what a fair price to pay for one is, This is Money can reveal the three highest value London 2012 50p coins out there, as well as a special one which could net you as much as £750 if you got your hands on it.
| Sport | Mintage | Estimated value |
|---|---|---|
| Aquatics | 2,179,000 | £4 |
| Archery | 3,345,000 | £2 |
| Athletics | 2,224,000 | £2 |
| Badminton | 2,133,000 | £2 |
| Basketball | 1,748,000 | £2 |
| Boccia | 2,166,000 | £2 |
| Boxing | 2,148,000 | £2 |
| Canoeing | 2,166,000 | £2 |
| Cycling | 2,090,000 | £2 |
| Equestrian | 2,142,000 | £2 |
| Fencing | 2,115,000 | £2 |
| Football | 1,125,000 | £10 |
| Goalball | 1,615,000 | £8 |
| Gymnastics | 1,720,000 | £2 |
| Handball | 1,676,000 | £8 |
| Hockey | 1,773,000 | £2 |
| Judo | 1,161,000 | £10 |
| Modern Pentathlon | 1,689,000 | £2 |
| Rowing | 1,717,000 | £2 |
| Sailing | 1,749,000 | £2 |
| Shooting | 1,656,000 | £2 |
| Table Tennis | 1,737,000 | £2 |
| Taekwondo | 1,664,000 | £2 |
| Tennis | 1,454,000 | £8 |
| Triathlon | 1,163,000 | £10 |
| Volleyball | 2,133,000 | £2 |
| Weightlifting | 1,879,000 | £2 |
| Wheelchair Rugby | 1,765,000 | £2 |
| Wrestling | 1,129,000 | £10 |
| Source: ‘Spend It? Save It?’ | ||
Football
The rarest of all the 29 designs, and the second scarcest 50p coin in circulation after the Kew Gardens 50p – minted just 210,000 times – is the football 50p.
Its design features an explanation of the offside rule.
While rarity doesn’t always correspond to value, this is the coin that has sold for the most money on eBay out of all 29.
The 2012 Olympics 50p shows explains the offside rule, and is the rarest of all the 29 Olympic coins
Collectors on five occasions paid almost £22 for the coin, 44 times its face value of 50p.
While that isn’t the hundreds of pounds some people might hope to get for a relatively rare coin, that still represents a monumental return.
We have also seen the coin sold for £17.25, which would be nearly 35 times its face value.
The triathlon 50p features silhouettes of a runner, cyclist and swimmer, the three events that make up the 51.5km race
Triathlon
Ironically, one of the rarest Olympic 50p coins created by the Mint is for an event Britain ended up winning two medals in.
Brownlee brothers Alistair and Jonny took home gold and bronze in the men’s triathlon, while this coin sits in the silver medal spot when it comes to value.
Just over 1.16million versions of it were minted, 38,000 more than the football 50p and 34,000 more than the wrestling 50p, which despite its rarity is not deemed valuable by collectors.
The coin features a male silhouette of one of each sport in the triathlon; running, cycling and swimming, and sell on eBay for around £12.50, though some have sold for as much as £14, 28 times their face value.
The judo 50p was minted just 1.16million times, and sells for around £10.50
Judo
In bronze medal position is a coin displaying a sport which Britain took home silver in, thanks to Charlton-born Gemma Gibbons, and that is judo.
The judo coin is actually slightly rarer the the triathlon 50p, with 2,000 fewer being minted.
Though the two sell on eBay for fairly similar amounts, the triathlon 50p coins just edge judo into third spot, with the latter selling for around £10.50.
Though you’d probably still be pretty happy if you sold a 50p coin for 21 times its face value.
An unknown number of alternatively designed swimming 50p coins, featuring the swimmer’s head underwater (left), exist and do sell for big money
The swimming coin worth £750
Finally, there is an unknown number of special swimming 50p coins which could be worth an awful lot of money if you pick one up.
The aquatics 50p, featuring someone in a swimming cap, was minted nearly 2.18million times, and itself is not particularly rare nor valuable.
However a number of coins, which are not minting errors but rather an alternative design that was scrapped before the 29 coins were minted en-masse, appear to feature the swimmer underwater, with the water lines over their face.
The real design features the swimmer’s head clear of the water lines.
If you get your hands on one of these its value is estimated to be more than £750, while one sold for £590 in the summer after a 10 day auction with 47 bids.
If you do get your hands on one of these coins, you well and truly have struck gold.
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