Collectors are splashing out £500 for rare 50p error coins 

Virgin Radio

15 Oct 2021, 09:26

At first glance they may seem like ordinary 50p coins, but certain ones have coin collectors in a frenzy and paying hundreds of pounds to get their hands on one.

One such coin featuring a mistake sold for a whopping £510 on eBay last week.

You might want to start digging down the back of the sofa or raid that piggy bank to see if any of the collectors coins are in there.

Another coin of the same design sold for £443.

So what is it about these ordinary-looking coins that have people so excited? 

The two expensive coins feature a a rare Olympic design minted in 2011.

It was inspired by the games hosted in London the following year.

Commemorative designs are often in demand for collectors, but these two didn’t quite go to plan.

They have an incorrect version of the Olympic Aquatics design on them.

These preliminary copies were created before the corrected versions on the other coins.

The original version featured a swimmer underwater with lines over their face.

However, the decision was made to redesign the coin later in 2011 to make the swimmer’s face clearer.

Around 600 of the error coins were minted.

That’s a tiny amount compared to almost 2.1 million of the later corrected designs.

This all adds up to increasing demand, which is behind the high prices.

A spokesperson for Change Checker, a website where people can check the scarcity of a coin, told The Sun: "It’s important to remember that anyone can list anything for any price on the secondary market, and this can suddenly stir up a lot of attention, for no real reason."

"We know it’s not unusual for these coins to exchange hands for close to £1000. In 2014, one sold for £820!"