Is there a £3000 coin in your pocket?
It might surprise you to learn that rare coins change hands every day in the UK. No, we’re not talking about ancient gold and silver pieces that move from one private collector to another. We’re talking about small change that ordinary Britons use to catch the tube or a bus in the morning. These coins are often worth many times their face value due to their scarcity and the fact that collectors are willing to pay handsomely for them. With that in mind, here is a list of rare coins that may be in your pocket as we speak.
Kew Gardens 50p – £24
Only 210,000 of these 50p coins were manufactured in 2011 to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Botanical Gardens. That is compared with the 22.7 million coins that featured the Royal Arms in 2008. Not surprisingly, collectors went wild for this contemporary anomaly, forcing prices to rise to £24. Although the number of Kew Gardens 50p in circulation continues to dwindle as coin lovers snap them up at a frantic pace, experts estimate that one in every 300 people in the UK currently owns one — often without knowing it! Read the rest of this entry »