Posts Tagged ‘50p Coin’
What’s your favourite 50p coin design of the year 2018?
We’re on the hunt for the best Coin Design of 2018 as part of the 2018 Change Checker Awards and we need your help! With over 50 new coins released this year, we’ve decided to shortlist the coins by denomination and then determine one overall winner from the top 10p, 50p, £2 and £5 coins as voted by Change Checkers!
50p Coins
Seven 50p coins have been released this year, including the third series of Beatrix Potter 50ps and the first ever UK Paddington 50p coins!
So which 2018 50p coin do you think deserves to be named the best of 2018?
Cast your vote now using the poll at the bottom of the page and find out more about the coins that have been released this year below!
Representation of the People Act 50p
In 2018 The Royal Mint released a 50p to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of The Representation of the People Act being passed. The 50p was designed by Stephen Taylor and features five men and women in line to vote, with a woman triumphantly raising a voting card.
Peter Rabbit 50p
The 2018 50p coin is the third UK coin to feature the much-loved children’s character Peter Rabbit. Struck by The Royal Mint, this is the first coin in the third series of Beatrix Potter 50ps which proved to be extremely popular with coin collectors in 2016 and 2017. Designed by Emma Noble, the reverse features Peter Rabbit munching on radishes.
Flopsy Bunny 50p
The 2018 Flopsy Bunny 50p coin has been issued to celebrate one of Beatrix Potter’s most loved children’s tales, ‘The tale of Flopsy Bunny’. This is the first UK coin to feature Flopsy Bunny and has been designed by Emma Noble to feature the adorable character on the reverse of the coin.
Tailor of Gloucester 50p
The 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p coin has been issued to celebrate one of Beatrix Potter’s most loved children’s tales, ‘The Tailor of Gloucester’ and is the first UK coin to feature The Tailor of Gloucester. As part of the third series of Beatrix Potter 50ps, Emma Noble designed this coin to feature The Tailor of Gloucester on the reverse.
Mrs Tittlemouse 50p
The 2018 Mrs. Tittlemouse 50p coin has been issued to celebrate one of Beatrix Potter’s most loved children’s tales, ‘The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse’ and is the first UK coin to feature Mrs. Tittlemouse. Designed by Emma Noble for the 2018 Beatrix Potter series, the design features Mrs Tittlemouse on the reverse of the coin.
Paddington at the Station 50p
To celebrate the iconic 60th anniversary of Michael Bond’s novel “A Bear Called Paddington”, The Royal Mint issued potentially the most sought-after 50p ever. Designed by David Knapton and based on the modern adaptation from the CGI-live action movie, this coin features Paddington on his suitcase in front of the station.
Paddington at the Palace 50p
This lovely design by David Knapton is the second coin issued by the Royal Mint in the 2018 Paddington series. These coins represent the first time Paddington has featured on official UK coinage and are definitely highly collectable and this particular design features Paddington waving a Union Flag outside Buckingham Palace.
The Snowman 50p
To celebrate the festive season, this coin has been issued by The Royal to mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Briggs’ much-loved festive tale The Snowman™. Designed by Natasha Ratcliffe, the new coin depicts the boy and the snowman flying through the night sky above Brighton Pier.
With so many beautiful coins issued this year it certainly makes picking a winner incredibly tough, but now’s the time for you to cast your vote!
The winning 50p will then be entered into our Coin Design of the Year vote as part of the 2018 Change Checker Awards, alongside the top 10p, £2 and £5 coins from 2018 to determine which coin should be crowned the overall winner!
The voting has now closed and the results can be found below:
It’s now time for you to vote for your overall winner, shortlisted from Change Checker’s favourite A-Z 10p, 50p, £2 and £5 coin of the year.
View our full range of CERTIFIED BU 50p coins here >>
Confirmed: Brexit 50p will be issued in 2019
*** UPDATE 12/08/2019 ***
The Chancellor Sajid Javid has asked officials if it will be possible to produce Brexit 50p coins in time for Britain’s departure from the EU in October 2019.
Previously, Chancellor Philip Hammond planned for just 10,000 commemorative Brexit coins to be struck for the event, however Javid intends millions of Brexit 50ps to be produced for circulation.
As mentioned in the blog below, the coin will have the words, “Peace, Prosperity and Friendship with all nations” and feature the date of Brexit – now 31st October 2019.
But with only a few months to go, will the coins be signed off by the Queen’s privy council and struck by The Royal Mint in time for Brexit?
Click here to sign up for the latest Brexit 50p updates.
It’s official! A Brexit 50p WILL be issued by The Royal Mint to mark the UK’s exit from the EU!
Within his budget, the Chancellor unveiled his advanced plans for the 50p coin, which will be released in Spring 2019.
As such a controversial issue, which has created much disruption across the UK and the EU since the referendum in June 2016, Philip Hammond hopes that this new coin, which is expected to bear the phrase ‘Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations’, will promote the positivity of the event.

Brexit 50p announced. Credit @HRTreasury
In our previous blog, we asked Change Checkers if they would like to see a Brexit coin and 68% of you believed that such a significant moment in Britain’s history should be commemorated with a 50p coin. The Government has now finally conceded to create a gesture for this landmark moment and recognise its importance, although Treasury sources say the department has secretly been working on plans for the coin for months now.
The importance of Brexit can now be likened to Britain’s entry to the European Economic Community, which was then incorporated into the EU in 1993. A 50p coin was issued in 1973 to mark the occasion, featuring nine hands clasping each other in a circle, symbolising the nine member states of the community, intended to represent the trust, assistance and friendship which comes with EEC membership. So important was this event, that in 1998 the first “new sized” commemorative 50p was issued to commemorate 25 years of the UK in the EEC.
89,775,000 of the 1973 50p coins were struck for collectors but is no longer in circulation, whilst the 1998 coin has a mintage figure of 5,043,000 and can still be found in circulation.

1973 and 1998 EEC 50p coins
It seems that the idea of commemorating Brexit in some way is popular amongst collectors, as commemorative 50p shaped Brexit souvenirs are now available on eBay and are currently selling for £6.99. These are not legal tender, but go to show that a Brexit 50p coin is certainly in demand and could be incredibly sought-after.

Brexit commemorative medal. Credit: eBay
An order has now been issued by Mr Hammond to The Royal Mint advisory committee to draw up a designs for the Brexit 50p coin, which should be signed off later this year. Just as the EEC 50p from 1973 intended to promote the development of new relationships, so too will the Brexit 50p, but what do you think about the plans for the new coin?
We posted a poll on our Facebook page to find out what Change Checkers think and 66% of you think we should have a Brexit coin, compared to just 34% voted against the coin and the majority opinion seems to be that we had a coin for entering the EU, so we should also have one for leaving.
Sign up to receive updates about the 2019 Brexit 50p coin:
How rare is my 50p and how much is it worth?
As a collector, there’s no better feeling than finding a sought-after 50p in your change! But with over 76 different 50p coin designs in circulation, how can you tell which ones are worth looking out for?
Luckily for you, we’ve done the hard work and compiled a number of resources to help you determine how rare your 50p is and how much it might be worth.

Mintages
A sure fire way to know if you’ve found a keeper is to check the mintage figures for your 50p. Generally speaking, the lower the mintage, the rarer the coin and the harder it will be to find in circulation.
Here is the most up to date mintage chart for UK 50p coins in circulation, with the UK’s rarest circulation 50p – the 2023 Salmon 50p – right at the top. The Salmon 50p recently overtook the Kew Gardens 50p as the rarest 50p when it was announced in October 2024 that only 200,000 of them are in circulation – 10,000 less than the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p!

In third place is the 2018 Peter Rabbit 50p with a mintage of 1,400,000, a huge jump up from the tiny mintage figures of the Salmon and Kew Gardens 50ps!
Click here to read more about the 50p mintage figures >>
eBay Tracker
Mintage figures are a great way to find out how many of a certain coin were released into circulation and therefore, how difficult it might be to find – but this doesn’t necessarily give you a value for your coin. One way in which you can determine what your coin might be worth, is to look at how much it’s sold for on secondary market sites such as eBay.
Again, we’ve made things easy for you by taking the last 9 sold prices achieved on eBay for the top 10 coins and banknotes and giving you the median selling price. By taking the median, rather than an average, we avoid one or two excessive prices skewing the figures.

Our latest eBay Tracker update revealed that the rarest circulating 50p – the 2023 Salmon 50p – could fetch you up to £83.60 on the secondary market. However, a 2009 Kew Gardens 50p will still set you back over £140, despite no longer being the rarest 50p.
You can also see that the undated 20p, known as the ‘holy grail of change collecting’, is selling for a median of £64 – not a bad return on a 20p coin!
Read our latest eBay Tracker Update >>
Don’t see your coin on the eBay Tracker? You can use our 6 Point Guide to valuing your coins to determine how much they could be worth.
Change Checker’s Scarcity Index
Mintage figures only tell part of the story when determining how scarce and sought-after the coins in your collection are. That’s why we created the Change Checker Scarcity Index to give you a complete picture of how your coin compares to other 50ps in circulation.
We combine a coin’s mintage figure with how many collectors have listed the coin as being in their collection on the Change Checker App, and the number of times the coin has been requested as a swap on our Swap Centre.

Our latest Scarcity Index for 50p coins was the first one to feature the 2023 Salmon 50p, so the Kew Gardens 50p remains at the top whilst the Salmon 50p establishes itself as the new rarest 50p.
So how rare is your 50p?
So, now you know about the above tools, you can start to determine how rare your 50p is and how much it might be worth.
We’d love to know if you’ve found any rare coins in your change recently, so let us know in the comments below!
If you’re interested in coin collecting, our Change Checker web app is completely free to use and allows users to:
– Find and identify the coins in their pocket
– Collect and track the coins they have
– Swap their spare coins with other Change Checkers
Sign up today at: www.changechecker.org/app