Rare Blue Peter 50p coin sells for £257 on eBay – how to find one

A RARE Blue Peter 50p coin has sold for hundreds of pounds more than its face value at auction site eBay.

The nostalgic rare coin sold on December 20 for £256.86, which is over 512 times more than its official worth.

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Collectors are keen to get their hands on this piece of history, and its nod to the children's television classic adds a personal stake to the value for many too.

The Blue Peter 50p was designed by fan, Florence Jackson, after she won a competition that saw more than 17,000 entries on the kids TV show.

The rare coin features a picture to show an athlete in the Olympics, as drawn and depicted by the young viewer back in 2009.

It made the then nine year-old, the youngest person to ever design a UK coin.

Typically the coin will sell for over £200 if it's noticed by the right bidder.

The last heavy hitter we spotted was willing to pay as much as £266.59 for another copy, back in October.

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Before that, another bidder was willing to fork out £286 for one on eBay in September.

But it's not usually a coin that would crop up in your change as the design is rare.

That's especially the case for this copy as it has managed to stay neatly "sealed" in its original packaging too.

Around 2.2million of the Blue Peter coins were minted in 2011 and released into circulation, but an earlier version of the coin was minted in 2009 and is much more valuable.

This coin is supposedly one of those, and only 20,000 exist.

If you were to officially buy the coin in its complete set it would cost you £11 from the official .

So this seller still managed to make a £245 advance on that.

But there's nothing to say the coin won't crop up in your own change - you can still use it in today's currency away from its packaging, so copies can easily get lost in everyday transactions.

Do you have one in your pocket? If you know how to find one, you could be quids-in too.

How to find one

Taking a look at other coins on eBay can give you a good idea of how much you could make from a rare version in your own spare change.

You want to watch out for commemorative coins as these will often do best on the online auction site.

For example, the rare Kew Gardens 50p always does well, and it has been a popular collectors item ever since its launch in 2009 too, to celebrate 250 years since the London attraction it's named after was opened.

The Blue Peter coin is no different, and the 2009 date marked on the coin will often be what buyers look for when they're on the hunt for the latest addition to their collection.

To help you wade through the waters though, online tools from change experts like  are helpful to see how much it could be worth as well.

You can also refer to Change Checker's latest scarcity index update to see which coins are topping the charts in terms of value.

Plus, The Royal Mint has its own account of the rarest coins in circulation.

If you're looking for other ways to verify the coin, the number of bids on the listing can help you establish if a coin and the amount it has sold for is the real deal.

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But remember that on eBay a buyer could pull out, which means the coin won't have sold for the price it appears to have.

Fakes often float about on the internet too, so keep these in mind when your looking so you don't get duped out of your hard earned cash.