Rare Sherlock Holmes 50p coin sells for £500 on eBay – do you have one in your spare change?
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A SHERLOCK Holmes 50p coin has sold on eBay for £500 - 1,000 times what it's worth at face value.
The coin features the profile of the fictional detective, who's wearing his iconic deerstalker hat and smoking pipe.
Behind him are tiny inscriptions of the titles of books in the Sherlock Holmes series.
It's one of the commemorative coins launched last year to mark the 160th birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the detective series.
The 50ps could be bought from The Royal Mint Experience or on the Royal Mint website for £10 including a presentation pack, which are still available to buy online.
The coin makers later released a batch into circulation in May this year to mark the author's actual birthday.
This version of the coins was uncircualted which meant that it was in a pretty good condition, and it had the 2018 date stamped on it.
It's unlikely that a circulated version will fetch as much at auction because the closer it is to mint condition the more valuable it is.
Circulated Sherlock coins are currently selling for around £2 online.
The seller didn't specify whether it would be sold in its original packaging or not, which may have added even more value to it.
The coin sold for the price that it was listed for after receiving four bids.
What are the most valuable 50p coins?
HAVE a rummage through the change in your pocket for rare 50p coins because they could be worth a small fortune.
Kew Gardens, up to £160
This rare commemorative coin was created in 2009 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of London’s Kew Gardens. Only 210,000 of these coins were issued and a quick check online shows up that a circulated coin with this design sold for after it got 25 bids.
Sir Isaac Newton, up to £77
At first, just 375 of the Sir Isaac Newton coins were released into the tills at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, the birthplace and home of the famous scientist, but more of the coins were slowly released into circulation - adding up to a total of 1.8million. The majority of these coins are still boxed in protective packaging and they're selling for around .
Jemima Puddle Duck, up to £13.50
There are only 2.1million of these coins in circulation and one of the coins recently sold for 27 times its value at .
Suffragettes, up to £7.50
There are currently 3.1million of the coins in circulation. Recently, one coin that had been in circulation fetched - that's 15 times its face value.
WWF, up to £4.50
There are 3.4million coins in circulation and they are hugely popular amongst collectors. We found one that was recently .
Britannia, up to £1.81
Britannia was replaced by the new Royal Shield in 2008 as the standard 50p design, and none have been issued since, making the ones minted in that year valuable to collectors. Only 3.5million were issued into circulation and one recently sold on .
The Royal Mint is yet to confirm how many of the coins there are, circulated and uncirculated, which could potentially add value to the coins.
This is because the rarer they are, the more a collector is likely to pay for it.
For example, the Kew Gardens 50p is currently the rarest coin in the UK with just 210,000 in circulation - one tends to sell for around £90 on eBay.
If you think you've got a valuable coin in your change and are looking to sell it, you should get it verified by the manufacturers first.
You can either get it valued by a dealer or check how much they're selling for on eBay by searching through the sold listings.
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A rare 50p coin from the Falkland Islands has sold for almost £114 online, thanks to a subtle blunder.
Last week we reported how a retired photographer found a 10p error coin worth £200 in his change 40 years ago.
Do you reckon the change in your wallet is worth a mint? We've put together a round up of the most valuable 50p coins.
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