While you might not carry as much change as you used to, checking your pockets and purse could lead to you earning a small fortune.
A 50p coin listed by an eBay user in Bolton sold for £155, selling for 310x its face value after receiving nine bids.
The coin has Beatrix Potter’s name, a portrait and a small image of Peter Rabbit plus the dates 1866 and 1943 on the tails side while on the heads side, you’ll see the late Queen Elizabeth’s portrait.
It was listed on eBay as being a "2016 Silver Proof Beatrix Potter Anniversary 50p coin" and a "rare gem".
The Royal Mint has released a variety of Beatrix Potter coins including some character designs with Peter Rabbit, Flopsy Bunny and more featuring.
The Mint’s website explains who the author is, saying: “Helen Beatrix Potter will always be remembered first for her twenty-three beautifully illustrated “tales” for children, beginning with The Tale of Peter Rabbit™ which changed the direction of children’s literature forever.
“Clever, irreverent, yet drawn and told with undeniable understanding of a child’s sense of adventure and of curiosity, Potter’s illustrations and her words were perfectly balanced in a manner that has not been repeated or matched more than one hundred years later.
“But Beatrix Potter touched our world and our lives well beyond the reach of her memorable animals and her stories of country life.
“A woman of keen intelligence, great curiosity, and generosity, she lived her adult life as a successful farmer and sheep breeder in the English Lake District and translated her love of country life into her charitable gifts of properties to conserve the culture that she valued, loved, and made popular in her books.”
Five incredibly rare and valuable British coins
Recommended reading:
- How to get your old coins valued - are you sitting on a fortune?
- Royal Mint reveals 10 rarest 50p coins in circulation - how much they are worth
- The 50p coin that could be worth a small fortune after selling for more than £175
Which 50p coin is the rarest?
The rarest of the Royal Mint’s most valuable 50p coins is the Kew’s Garden 50p, which was designed to mark the 250th anniversary of the gardens in 2009. Only 210,000 coins were ever minted with this design.
The Kew Gardens 50p sells for £156.25 on average, but one seller received over £700 for one when they sold it on eBay.
Seven Olympic 50p coins from the 2012 Olympic Games feature in the Royal Mint’s top 10 most valuable 50p coins.
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