HOLD onto your spare change because it could be worth a fortune – some coins can sell for as much as £895.
The Royal Mint, the official coin maker of British coins, often produces limited edition coins which can fetch many times their face value.
You can usually tell if a coin is going to be worth a lot depending on its mintage.
If it has a low mintage, it means there's less of the coin in circulation making it rarer.
The most popular rare coin that can fetch the owner potentially hundreds is the 50p coin.
This is because there was a whole range of different designs minted, including Harry Potter themed coins.
The most sought after design is the Kew Gardens 50p, which has even sparked bidding wars amongst collectors on eBay desperate to get their hands on the coin.
Some are willing to pay hundreds of pounds to claim it for their own, hundreds of times more than the face value of the coin.
Here are the Royal Mint's top rarest 50ps and how much we've seen them sell for recently on eBay:
Triathlon – worth £16
- Mintage: 1,163,500
The Triathlon 50p was minted in 2011 and there are 1,163,500 in circulation.
There are over 200 million 50ps circulating in the UK, so the Triathlon 50p is a very rare find.
In 2011, Royal Mint circulated unique 50ps depicting the sport featuring in the upcoming 2012 London, Olympic Games.
The highest recent bid we've found on eBay for the coin is £16.
And one sold for £11.29 on the platform more recently.
Judo – worth £18
- Mintage: 1,161,500
Judo is a popular sport that involves holding down and grappling with your opponent.
Despite it's design, it's not so easy to grab hold of the coin.
It was designed by David Cornell, who won a competition that saw his design printed on 1,161,500 50ps.
It was minted in 2011 and the highest bid we've seen on eBay was for £18.
Earlier than that, it's gone for £29.
Wrestling – worth £14.50
- Mintage: 1,129,500
Wrestling was one of the first Olympic sports.
With a low mintage, the 2011 London Olympics wrestling 50p coin could earn you up to £14.50 online.
This coin was designed by Roderick Enriquez, a graphic designer from Hammersmith.
Football – worth £20
- Mintage: 1,125,500
The Royal Mint made a number of 50p coins commemorating the London 2012 Olympics.
Of all the coins created to commemorate the games, the 50p Football is among the rarest.
It even features an explanation of the offside rule on it.
One sold for £20 on eBay in August this year.
But it has gone for as much as £75 in the past.
Kew Gardens – worth £650
- Mintage: 210,000
The Kew Gardens 50p is the rarest of all the 50p pieces and there are only 210,000 in circulation.
They have sold for as much as £895 on eBay in the past.
More recently, we found one that sold for £650.
This coin often is the one that sparks the interest of new coin collectors.
The design was created by Christopher Le Brun RA and features the famous Chinese Pagoda with a leafy chamber that twists around the tower.
How much are other 50p coins worth?
Many coins can be worth much more when sold on eBay as part of a collection.
Although sometimes you'll get better individual prices if another collector needs your coin to complete their collection.
The rare Blue Peter Olympic 50p has been flogged on eBay for £205 in the past.
The coin shows an athlete doing the high jump and was drawn by nine-year-old Florence Jackson after winning a competition on the kid's TV show.
To his surprise, one seller managed to pocket a whopping £63,000 flogging his Battle of Hasting's 50p too.
Coins with mistakes tend to be among the highest values as well, because they'll also come in extremely limited numbers.
One 50p that was mistakenly struck twice sold for as much as £510 on eBay because it was rare.
It's not only 50ps either, as a rare error 10p coin sold for over 1,000 times more than its face value on eBay only recently, too.
Newer versions could be worth a mint too
You might think that old coins go for the most – but new ones can go for some big sums too.
In 2019, the Royal Mint re-released sets of five of the rarest and most popular 50ps to celebrate half a decade of the coin.
The new coins are made with old designs including Kew Gardens, Girl Guides and Scouts, but are stamped with the 2019 date which could make them super valuable among collectors.
The £90 collectors' proof sets sold out in February 2019, but you can still get uncirculated sets for £45 directly from the Royal Mint.
An entirely new 50p coin came out in 2019 too, to celebrate Team GB.
And new coins come out all the time – a new FA Cup £2 design came out last year.
How do I find out what my coin is worth?
If you're lucky enough to pick up a rare coin in your spare change, it could go for hundreds of pounds depending on how rare it is.
You should check how much the coin is selling for on eBay.
Search the full name of the coin, select the "sold" listing and then toggle the search to "highest value".
It will give you an idea of the amount of money that the coin is going for.
But remember, a buyer could always pull out so the coin may not have gone for the price it says it has.
And watch out for fakes too.
You can also use an online tool that gives you an estimate of how much it could be worth on eBay, as well as any other rare coins you have.
Coin Hunter gives you an estimated valuation of your coin based on the average of the most recent sales, as well as a range of how much you can expect it to fetch.
Plus Change Checker's Scarcity Index will give you a good idea of how rare a coin is.
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