Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Currency, oh glorious currency. It’s always worth exactly as much as it’s worth right? Well, no. There’s currently a 50p coin out there that’s worth around £840. Woah. Yes, you read that correctly. 50p. £840. “How on earth did that happen?”, we hear you scream. Well, we’ve got the answers.
The fabled coin features Beatrix Potter’s famous creation on it. Peter Rabbit. Go on, rifle through your wallet right now and check if there are any 50p rabbit coins. Because if they are, that next holiday is sorted.The coins were released as commemorative ones earlier this year and are not being officially released into circulation by the Royal Mint.
The coins are still on sale on the coin makers’ website for £10 each but even though they’re commemorative, they’re still legal to use. Although it would be really silly for you to use them, considering they are worth more than the 50p value they have in a shop.
Nicola Howell, director of the consumer division at the Royal Mint said: “Following the fantastic response to our previous Beatrix Potter collections, we’re delighted to be celebrating the timeless appeal of Peter Rabbit, one of the most-loved children’s characters, once again with our 2019 commemorative coin, giving fans the chance to add to their existing collections.”
A group of coin enthusiasts called The Great British Coin Hunt is releasing the coins into the general coin population. They will be pushing out 400 of the coins. Who knows where they will slot them in – shops, parking metres, vending machines. Of course the fact there will only be 400 means it will be quite difficult to track them down. But on the positive, because there are only 400 coins, their value will be sky high.
Previous versions of 50p coins featuring Peter Rabbit have been sold on eBay for as much £840. It is predicted that this will be the case again. We’re pretty sure that if we found one of these coins we’d be jumping up and down and hopping around like Peter Rabbit himself. We love finding extra value in places you don’t expect to find it and one place we certainly never thought we’d see it was in the form of a 50p coin. It’s in the name, come on.
So, if you will excuse us, we’ll just be going through our wallets and coin jar, in the hopes of being £840 richer. We advise you to do the same…
Any chance of a picture of the coin? There are quite a few Peter Rabbit ones.
I got alot of it
I have alot of it and i need what do do please
I have a Jemima Pudleduck, not lucky enough to find a Kew Gardens 50p though.
I have a Peter rabbit 50p in my collection
I have a few Peter Rabbit 50ps already
there are so many so which one are we all looking for. Other wise what a pointless article
So what are the coins depicting? How do we know what to look for?