Posts Tagged ‘50p Coin’
Royal Mint announces new coin themes for 2015
2015 is set to be something of a momentous year for coin collectors, with five significant anniversaries to be commemorated next year. They are:
£2 – The 800th Anniversary of theMagna Carta
2015 
marks 800 years since the signing of the Magna Carta – an agreement which forced King John to abide by the ancient laws and customs by which England had previously been governed. Literally translated as “Great Charter” it laid the foundations for modern democracy and the rights of English citizens. In fact, it is still cited in many legal cases to this day.
50p – 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain
Perhaps surprisingly, this will be the very first time that the Battle of Britain is commemorated on a United Kingdom coin. In the summer of 1940, Nazi Germany was quickly advancing through Europe, but their failure to gain air superiority over the RAF in Britain was ultimately one of the turning points of the war.
£2 – 100th Anniversary of the First World War – Royal Navy
The second design in the series of First World War £2 coins pays tribute to the role of the Royal Navy. At the time, it was by far the most powerful navy in the world and was a major asset to Britain in defending coastal waters against the Germans.
£5 – 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo
Also making its debut on United Kingdom coinage for 2015 is the Battle of Waterloo. Fought by the Duke of Wellington and his allied armies against Napoleon Bonaparte of France in 1815, it was a defining moment in European history – ending 20 years of conflict in the continent.
£5 – 50th Anniversary of the Death of Winston Churchill
There are few Britons more worthy of commemoration than the wartime Prime Minister himself, Sir Winston Churchill. Following his death in 1965 he became the first person outside of the Royal family to be commemorated on a coin, and now, fifty years on, he is being honoured again on a new £5 coin.
Next year the Queen is due to become the longest reigning monarch in British history, and there will soon be a new portrait on our coins to honour her. With the final appearance of the long-standing effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS and five very noteworthy anniversaries, it already looks like 2015 will be a truly landmark year for coin collectors.
This 50p just sold for £820.00
Finding a coin which is worth a small fortune is the stuff of dreams for every Change Checker. You may remember the excitement over the rarity of the Kew Gardens 50p earlier this year and the bidding frenzy that occurred on eBay shortly afterwards.
Well now there is a coin which has eclipsed the Kew Gardens, both in terms of scarcity, and the sheer scale of money changing hands.
This week, a UK 50 pence piece sold on eBay for £820. Or to put it another way, 1,640 times its face value!
It appears to be an ordinary Aquatics Olympic 50p at first glance, but this coin has a special quality which collectors desire more than anything else: an error.
And the good news is, there are more out there to be found!
The rare Aquatics Olympic 50p sold on eBay this week for £820.00
In 2011 the Aquatics Olympic 50p depicting a swimmer underwater was redesigned by the Royal Mint to make the swimmer’s face more visible. However, before the change was made, a small number of coins were struck with the original design.
The coin on the left is the rare original design, with waves passing over the swimmer’s face
The added sense of excitement and anticipation over this particular error is that nobody knows exactly how many of the original coins were ever struck.
Their rare appearance at auction (and only so far in their original packaging) along with the astronomical amounts which buyers are happy to pay, supports the theory that there are very few around.
The 29 Olympic designs are now commonplace in our day-to-day life, so this coin ultimately is just a normal 50p which you would happily pass over the counter to pay for something. Blink and you would miss that small detail which is worth so much to coin collectors.
But the Aquatics Olympic 50p error is the latest example of why you should always carefully check what’s in your change – there really could be treasure hidden in your pocket!
Do you have an Aquatics Olympic 50p?
You can add it to your collection on the Change Checker App here
The latest collecting sensation
Glasgow 2014 has been universally acclaimed as a triumph for Scotland, and although the Games may be over, their legacy lives on with a new commemorative 50p.
History repeating?
The 2014 Commonwealth Games 50p
The feeling amongst collectors is that this 50p will become one of the most highly sought-after designs for years to come. Early indications are certainly backing this up, with the coin already becoming hot property in the collecting world just days after its introduction.
It reminds me of the last 50p craze back in 2012 when the new Olympic sports designs sparked a collecting revolution. People everywhere in the UK began checking their change and hoarding these special coins as soon as they caught sight of them.
Ever since then it has been much the same story with every new commemorative issue.
On your marks, get set…
The consequence of this collecting frenzy is that commemorative coins in our pocket are now regarded as pieces of treasure and are more frequently being taken out of circulation in their thousands rather than being treated merely as a means of payment.
Coin collectors need to be quick off the mark to get their hands on the latest design. The question used to be ‘when’ will I ever find one? Increasingly it is becoming ‘if’ I will ever find one.