Do you own the UK’s rarest 50p piece? And it’s not Kew Gardens.

Last week a 50p coin that many thousands of people have found in their daily pocket change started to be sold on e-Bay for prices upward of £100.00. Or to put it another way, 200 times its actual value!

50p graph1 - Do you own the UK’s rarest 50p piece?  And it’s not Kew Gardens.

Only 109,000 1992 EC 50p were issued into circulation – roughly half of the Kew Gardens 50p.

It was all because the Royal Mint announced that the Kew Gardens 50p coins is the UK’s most scarce circulation coin, with just 210,000 pieces ever been placed into circulation. The result was a media storm and the inevitable overnight ramping of prices.

Half the circulation of the Kew Gardens 50p

But what few people realise is that there is an even rarer UK 50p piece that was issued in half the number of the Kew Gardens coin – just 109,000 coins.

The coin was issued in 1992 to mark the EC Single Market and the UK presidency of the Council of Ministers – perhaps not the most popular of topics, which maybe was the reason so very few were pushed out into circulation. But of course, its lack of popularity at the time, is the very thing that now makes its Britain’s rarest 50p coin.

Sadly, however hard you search, unlike the Kew Gardens 50p, you will not find this one in your change. That’s because it is one of the old-sized 50p coins that were demonetised in 1998.

The coin itself was designed by Mary Milner Dickens and pictures the UK’s place at the head of the Council of Ministers’ conference table. The stars represent each of the nations’ capital cities placed in their relative geographical position.

But it won’t be the coin’s clever design that will guarantee its numismatic interest for years to come. It is its status as the UK’s most rare circulation 50p is what will intrigue collectors and have them searching and saving up in years to come.


Are you interested in owning the UK’s rarest 50p coin?

ec 50p - Do you own the UK’s rarest 50p piece?  And it’s not Kew Gardens.

The 1992 EC Single Market 50p

Limited stocks of the 1992 EC 50p coin are available from The Westminster Collection for £20.

NOW SOLD OUT

101 Comments

  1. Les Kent on April 6, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    Hi all
    Did you know that there are two EEC 50p coins large 1993 and a smaller new size 2009 which is one of the 14 rarest proof coins and all are rarer than the KEW GARDENS.
    The Kew Gardens. Montage 210.000
    The 14 proof coins only 1.039 sets were sold.
    Fact
    Les Kent
    Email me [email protected]

  2. Les kent on March 12, 2020 at 10:22 pm

    I have at lot of the EC Single market large 50p coins
    BUT did you know that there is a smaller 27.3mm proof EC coin ?
    and as told by the Royal Mint only 1,039 sets were sold making
    this coin the rarest.

  3. JAMES HARDING on March 5, 2020 at 9:02 am

    HI
    WENT TO CARDIFF ENJOYED WAIT IN QUEUE TALKING TO LIKE MINDED PEOPLE, FOUND OUT YOUR FAVOURITE PADDINGTON WAS EATING HIS MARMALADE SANDWICH AS I SWAPPED IT FOR THE BREXIT COIN. THE REASON FOR THIS COMMENT IS PERHAPS A TROI OF COINS REGARDING THE EEC COULD BE GOT TOGETHER, THE 1973 HANDS, 1992 TABLE AND 2020 BREXIT, JUST A SUGGESTION. I’M LUCKY BECAUSE I STARTED COLLECTING DECIMAL COINS AS SOMETHING TO DO AFTER OPEN HEART SURGERY JUST PRIOR OLYMPIC RELEASE SO I WAS ABLE TO GET THE TWO EEC COINS PLUS KEW WITHOUT KNOWING THE LATER RARITY VALUE

  4. aquaponic supplies on January 30, 2020 at 2:59 am

    Hi there, after reading this remarkable paragraph i am as well delighted to share my knowledge here with colleagues.

  5. Clare on August 29, 2019 at 5:48 pm

    My daughter has the blue peter high jump one

  6. Garry on August 27, 2018 at 9:34 am

    Hi i have a 2017 Benjamin button 50p is this worth anything

    • alan owen on March 19, 2019 at 4:07 am

      about 25,000,000 were minted, so no it’s face value

  7. Ward semple on December 10, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    Hi, I have a 1904 old Penny, is it worth anything, and pennies and halfpennys from1914 to 1918

    • Robin Parkes on December 11, 2017 at 11:17 am

      Hi Ward, unfortunately we can’t offer valuations however it’s great to have coins in your collection that are over 100 years old and also that span such important dates in our national history. Thanks, Robin.

  8. Emma on March 8, 2017 at 10:31 pm

    Hi I have an Edinburgh £1 coin from 2011 and the leek and daffodil £1 coin. I’ve been told they are collectible, is this true?

  9. Michael on March 6, 2017 at 10:28 pm

    .

  10. suzanne on January 22, 2017 at 12:10 am

    hi i have 3 kew garden coins for sale will sell to highest bid

    • Naz Nomad on March 10, 2017 at 2:21 am

      £1

      • phoebwaa on April 3, 2017 at 7:46 pm

        £70



      • sarah on May 6, 2019 at 9:12 pm

        hi, how much is an eu 1998 50p coin worth? thank you!



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