More established members shall know that when the Kew gardens commemorative 50p was issued in 2009 that it was very rare, only 210,000 being minted.
At that time, they were selling on eBay for about £6 (trust me, I bought some).
Now, following the ITV and Daily Mail news stories hyping the Royal Mint's declaration that:
"the Kew Gardens 50p coin is the rarest commemorative UK coin design to be released into circulation"
these are currently selling on eBay for in excess of £30.
And yet, in the Numista catalogue they have a rarity rating of just 51, which I should not have thought was very rare? And a few people declaring their willingness to swap them.
Any insights, oh great and wise numismatics?
Matt
A reformed er I mean former coin collector
PS
For what it is worth, I have *never* seen one in the wild, despite buying lots of bags of 50ps from banks for car parking change for my wife (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).
Cita: Matt_ProbertMore established members shall know that when the Kew gardens commemorative 50p was issued in 2009 that it was very rare, only 210,000 being minted.
At that time, they were selling on eBay for about £6 (trust me, I bought some).
Now, following the ITV and Daily Mail news stories hyping the Royal Mint's declaration that:
"the Kew Gardens 50p coin is the rarest commemorative UK coin design to be released into circulation"
these are currently selling on eBay for in excess of £30.
And yet, in the Numista catalogue they have a rarity rating of just 51, which I should not have thought was very rare? And a few people declaring their willingness to swap them.
Any insights, oh great and wise numismatics?
Matt
A reformed er I mean former coin collector
PS
For what it is worth, I have *never* seen one in the wild, despite buying lots of bags of 50ps from banks for car parking change for my wife (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).
Well 210 000 coins is not really that rare, plus they are commemorative so most get to collectors.
If it was a normal 50 pence with mintage of 210 000 I am sure it had a higher rarity here.
1997 £2 coins all over again, albeit there are nowhere near as many of the 50ps!
Muggles see a coin as being something inherently valuable, and if it's even slightly unusual then it's "rare" and must be worth a lot of money. Sadly we have to be the ones to tell them that no, that German €0,05 coin they got given in change as a penny isn't really worth anything, and that there are a few billion more of them floating around. Also, the concept of grades, BU, proof etc don't mean anything to them, and neither does the concept of catalogue values (if the catalogue says a coin is worth £x, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to find someone happy to give you £x for it . . . ), so even if the news report is accurate (ha ha) and painstakingly spells out all of the caveats, they're still left thinking that any example of the coin (or even vaguely similar coins!) is worth the headline figure from the article.
Same as the 2004 5c coins over here in New Zealand. When it was decided to do away with the 5c coins, all but 48,000 of the 2004 coins that had been just minted were melted down. They had news stories everywhere saying how rare they were and people were buying into it and paying up to $500 for a 5 cent coin. Now look at what the catalogue value is:
Another example was a few years ago, a high profile rugby player got into an altercation with a team-mate at a bar and smacked him with a handbag that was lying around. It was all over the news and the owner of the handbag put it up on the trademe auction site. Some fool paid NZ$22,000. Now that there's no media hype and people have forgotten about it the person is left with a $30 handbag that they paid $22,000 for that nobody else cares about.
My advice if you have some spare is to sell now when the prices are high. In a few years once the media hype has blown over, if you really want you'll be able to buy them back for a fraction of the cost.
I remembered a few years ago in Romania there was a rumor about Nokia 1100, one of the cheapest phones, could be used to hack cards or something like that and people sold them for as much as 1000 euro and people really bought them at that price. They couldn't hack anything of course.
Cita: kommodoreWell 210 000 coins is not really that rare, plus they are commemorative so most get to collectors.
If it was a normal 50 pence with mintage of 210 000 I am sure it had a higher rarity here.
Sorry, you misunderstand. They are a circulation coin (a standard 50p issued and spent in shops, as distinct to say a commemorative five pound crown). We have lots of different designs released. This design is relatively rare, for example: in 2000 a design celebrating public libraries was released, of which 11,263,000 were struck and in the same year 27,915,500 of the standard Britannia design 50p were struck.
Anyway, back to my original question. Any explanation as to the relative lack of rarity (51) on the Numista index??? Or does Kommodore predict the answer by suggesting that despite the rarity of the coin, it is so sought after by Numista members that it is not that rare *among Numista members*, even though it may be rare in the wider world?
Anyway, back to my original question. Any explanation as to the relative lack of rarity (51) on the Numista index??? Or does Kommodore predict the answer by suggesting that despite the rarity of the coin, it is so sought after by Numista members that it is not that rare *among Numista members*, even though it may be rare in the wider world?
It is still very curious that the Kew Gardens 50 pence coin is still very much in demand, and that the price continues to rise on a daily basis. I bought mine (in a First Day Cover) just after they were issued, before the price exploded to where we are today.
On a similar note, the UK alphabet coin series are nowhere near to the price when comparing like for like.
Key Gardens 50 pence issue 210,000. Value approx £150 minimum for a circulation coin.
Alphabet 10 pence 2019 series Mintage 2,100,000 across 26 letters. (80,700 each letter) values are generally under £10 each.
I understand weight and such but not the massive price variation when mintage is considered.
I have a couple of silver coins with a mintage of 500, but still not valued that high.
Perhaps that's why people pay millions for a painting as it's a one off
It’s insane how in demand they are. I never got round to buying one a few years ago when they were 60ish each, and now they are like 200-300. Probably a coin I’ll never get now.
I see that there are actually five collectors who have the Kew Gardens coin for exchange, and I am one of them. Bought it a few years ago to exchange, but the offers I have had for it, does not reflect its rarity, so its still with me.
Cita: "COINMAN1"I see that there are actually five collectors who have the Kew Gardens coin for exchange, and I am one of them. Bought it a few years ago to exchange, but the offers I have had for it, does not reflect its rarity, so its still with me.
I think that's the problem; I'd probably swap/buy for the 3~ years ago price of £80ish, but I just don't see it as worth any more. It seems to be a 'fad collector' coin more than anything else. In 3 years it could drop like a stone. Kinda like the peter rabbit mania. For £200 you could probably buy a 1903 halfcrown in not so crappy condition, which would be much more of a stable purchase.
As a reference, a coupla years ago I bought 10x no date 20p's for around £300; (ND 20p and kew gardens used to cost around the same) I'd get ONE kew gardens silver proof now for that.
I got mine around 7 years ago on UK Ebay for £25. At the time I thought that was a bit high but I needed it to fill the gap I had.
Now you can get fake copies for around that price. Crikey.
Mike
Master Referee - See my profile for what I collect.
Cita: "brismike"I got mine around 7 years ago on UK Ebay for £25. At the time I thought that was a bit high but I needed it to fill the gap I had.
Now you can get fake copies for around that price. Crikey.
Mike
What's really bad is when people don't see "fake" or "copy" in the title and pay full price for it. I saw one (I'll try to find the link if it hasn't disappeared) where a fake proof sold for almost £100.
Cita: "brismike"I got mine around 7 years ago on UK Ebay for £25. At the time I thought that was a bit high but I needed it to fill the gap I had.
Now you can get fake copies for around that price. Crikey.
Mike
What's really bad is when people don't see "fake" or "copy" in the title and pay full price for it. I saw one (I'll try to find the link if it hasn't disappeared) where a fake proof sold for almost £100.
Been seeing this loads with 1892 South African 5 shillings lately. The list a 'type set' for ZAR in crappy/mediocre condition along with a 5 shillings in poor focus and a start price of like $100. Turns out the 5 shillings is always fake to anyone knowing a bit about the series. I always report them and nothing happens.
Cita: "brismike"I got mine around 7 years ago on UK Ebay for £25. At the time I thought that was a bit high but I needed it to fill the gap I had.
Now you can get fake copies for around that price. Crikey.
Mike
Greetings! I've got this 2009 set in a folder from a local Trade Me site, from a seller for $125 NZD! And I thought, I had a real bargain!
The Royal mint issued only 100 000 sets like this one. It also has two commemorative £2 , with mintage of 250k and 300k respectively.
Andre
Cita: "AnSeTu017"
Greetings! I've got this 2009 set in a folder from a local Trade Me site, from a seller for $125 NZD! And I thought, I had a real bargain!
The Royal mint issued only 100 000 sets like this one. It also has two commemorative £2 , with mintage of 250k and 300k respectively.
Andre
Wow - You got a bargain there . .They are selling on UK Ebay for over £400
I am newly addicted to coin collecting and for me the spark that got me going was discovering the 2009 UK Darwin 2 pound coin while researching Charles Darwin on the net. This is the coin I had to have and ended up buying 2 x 2009 UK proof sets . one from an established Sydney dealer for $250 and another for $200 at auction .
Both in the last 4 months
While chasing the Darwin coin I realised Kew Gardens was the more sort after.
I keep looking at the prices they are asking for this set in the UK and am not sure if I should sell one now or hold.
Dingocreekoldboy
Newly obsessed, interested in all aspects of coins and currency.
I did get some good coins from it so that was ok. 
