Blue Peter 50p (2009)

Every Blue Peter 50p was sold in a presentation pack, so most survive in brilliant uncirculated condition and the packaging counts. A coin still in a clean, unbent Blue Peter card sells for more than one taken out of it. Loose coins with rim knocks, scratches or toning fetch less again. The 2009 date is what separates it from the plentiful 2011 Athletics coin, so confirm the date before comparing prices.

The Blue Peter 50p was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank. Its pack issue was limited to 100,000.

The reverse of the Blue Peter 50p is identical to the circulating Athletics 50p, so the heads side decides it. Read the date after the Queen's titles: 2009 means the Blue Peter pack coin, 2011 means the ordinary Athletics coin from change. No other Olympic 50p is dated 2009. Because it was sold only in packs, a Blue Peter coin still in its original card with the programme's branding is the simplest to confirm.

Florence Jackson was a schoolgirl from Bristol when she won a Blue Peter competition to design a coin celebrating the London 2012 Games. Children sent in a flood of drawings, the biggest response to a Blue Peter competition in more than ten years, and her entry made her the youngest person ever to design a United Kingdom coin. The Royal Mint struck her design with a 2009 date and put it on sale from 2 January 2009 in a special Blue Peter presentation pack. None of these coins went into change. The reverse keeps the plain outlines of a child's drawing: an athlete clears a high jump bar in the middle of the coin, the jagged London 2012 logo with the Olympic rings sits at the top, and 50 PENCE curves along the bottom edge. Ian Rank-Broadley's fourth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II fills the heads side, with the date. Two years later the same reverse came back as the Athletics coin in the Olympic sports set, this time dated 2011 and struck for circulation.

The Olympic set began with it, and the Aquatics 50p followed in 2011.