UK households urged to check their 50p coins for one worth £186

A rare 50p coin is selling for £186 on eBay. A rare Kew Gardens 50p coin has sold for £186 on auction site eBay after the seller revealed their copy had an unusual error – giving them a major boost amid the Cost of Living crisis.

Bidders took their chance on the coin before it sold on October 27 this year. Between them they placed 23 bids, which was enough to rocket the price to £186 and the lucky winning bidder had to pay £9.46 for Royal Mail Special Delivery on top of the £186.

The Kew Gardens 50p was released in 2009 to mark 250 years since Kew Gardens opened in 1759 and is particularly sought after by collectors as there were only around 210,000 ever made. The coin is suspected to have been mistruck at some point in the minting process.

READ MORE Drivers who don’t press three dashboard buttons in specific order face £2,500 fine

The Kew Gardens 50p remains at the top of the charts on Change Checker’s scarcity index so often collections are just after a copy because of the rare design. The design of the coin, its condition and whether or not the coin is in circulation also affects how much it could be worth.

You can easily figure out how rare a coin is, by checking its mintage figures. Previously, the UK has seen the coin which was minted in 2009 sell for as much as £707 before on eBay and more recently it sold for £320 with 40 bids on October 13.

TikTok user @CoinCollectingWizard said in a recent video: “Have you seen this? This beauty of a coin sold for £7,000. The ultra rare version of the Kew Gardens 50p was estimated to fetch between £5,000 and £6,000. The winning bidder grabbed themselves this graded PF70 version which is the best grade a coin can have.

“There were just 629 gold proof versions of the Kew Gardens 50p coin which was bought by the public in 2009. The coin features a design by Christopher Le Brun on the obverse celebrating the Royal of Botanical Gardens.

“This coin was first released in 2009 to celebrate 250 years of the iconic west London landmark. And it has since became the ‘holy grail’ of UK coin hunting.”