Gold Kew Gardens 50p coin could sell for £800 at Royal Mint’s first-ever auction – do you have a rare coin in your wallet?
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THE Royal Mint is selling a GOLD Kew Gardens 50p coin which could be worth up to £800.
Only 1,000 of these rare coins were made and only 629 of them were actually bought by the public, making them even more valuable to collectors.
The coin connoisseurs are hosting their first ever auction of valuable coins this month and they're hoping to flog some seriously old change - including a gold Kew Gardens 50p.
This design still tops the scarcity index. The silver versions were released into circulation in 2009 to celebrate the 250th anniversary or London's Kew Gardens.
Only 210,000 of them were issued, making it one of the rarest coins and most in demand coins, and a circulated coin with fetch up to.
But that's just the silver versions. The Royal Mint is now flogging an even rarer gold version and hopes that it will sell for five times as much.
What are the rarest and most valuable coins?
THESE are the rarest and most valuable 50p, £2 and 10p coins in circulation, according to the latest figures from ChangeChecker.
Some of them could be worth up to £160 so it might worth checking down the back of your sofa too see if you have any at home.
Kew Gardens 50p, up to £160
Just 210,000 of these coins were minted making it is the rarest coin and is the most in demand. This rare commemorative coin was created in 2009 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of London’s Kew Gardens, and sells for up to .
Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland 2002 £2 coin, up to £40
This is the rarest £2 coin and if more vaulable than the England, Scotland and Wales ones. One recently sold on , even though it had been in circulation it was also in a pretty good condition.
London 2012 Olympics Football 50p, up to £26
The football design celebrating the 2012 Olympics is the second rarest 50p, with only 1,125, 500 having been minted. One with the design that explains the off-side rule and has been in circulation recently sold for .
Commonwealth Games Wales 2002 £2 coin, up to £25
The second most valuable £2 coin is the Wales version of the same design which fetches up to if it's been in circulation.
Angel of the North 10p, up to £7.61
We couldn't find any circulated versions of these coins that have sold but an uncirculated one recently sold for
English Breakfast 10p, up to £1
The second most sort after coin is the letter E - or English Breakfast - which reaches 78 on the swap index. A circulated coin will fetch around - which is 10 times its original value.
It's been stuck on gold because it's a collectors "proof" coin.
For every new design, the Royal Mint often makes a batch of proof coins which are specially made for collectors, often printed on different metals and not for circulation.
These make them more valuable to collectors because they cost more to produce and they're in mint condition.
A proof silver one is also up for grabs which they predict will sell for between £32 and £40 at auction, even though it does have some marks on it.
Still, that's at least £120 less than what circulated ones sell for online.
A gold Girl Guiding UK 50p is also being sold as part of the auction too, which it is hoping will fetch around £600.
The Royal Mint's Matt Curtis reckons these coins are the "historic coins of the future" and worth getting your hands on.
WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU'VE GOT A RARE COIN
FIRSTLY, you need to make sure the coin is legitimate and not counterfeit.
Around one in every four old £1 coins were thought to be fake, according to the Royal Mint, so there are probably more fakers in your spare change then you realise.
The Royal Mint is unable to value a coin but it can confirm whether it is real or not. They will usually supply you with a letter to confirm this.
Once you’ve found out whether the coin is real or not, you have a number of options - either selling it through a coin dealer, at auction or on eBay.
Some of the coins at the auction are seriously old, dating back as far as the Anglo Saxon period around as 959 AD.
It's also flogging an Una and the Lion Five Pound gold coin from 1839 which is often described as the "most beautiful of all English coins".
Experts reckon it could fetch up to as much as £150,000.
The auction is due to take place on September 25 at 32 St George Street, London, W1S 2EA - you can register your interest .
MORE ON RARE NOTES AND COINS
Some coins could be worth THOUSANDS of pounds more than their face value to collectors - but what do you do if it crops up in your spare change?
Here's how to find out how much it's worth, and more importantly, how to sell it.
These are the 50p coins that are actually worth a small fortune, even if they're not the rarest.
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