Kew Gardens 50p (2009)

The Kew 50p sells well above face value even in worn condition, because so few were struck for circulation. Condition still decides where a coin sits within its range: a clear pagoda, sharp leaves and little wear on the rim lift the price, and brilliant uncirculated coins sit above any circulated example. A genuine coin is the starting point, since fakes are widespread. The 2019 reissue from the anniversary sets is valued separately from the circulating 2009 coin.

With 210,000 struck for circulation, the Kew Gardens 50p is the second rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the second lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Very rare band, for mintages under 500,000.

The next rarer 50p is the EEC Presidency and Single Market 50p, with 109,000 struck, and the next more common is the Football 50p, with 1,125,500 struck.

Look for a tall pagoda in the centre with a plant spiralling up it and the word Kew at its foot. The tails side has no value, so turn the coin over: a genuine Kew Gardens 50p has FIFTY PENCE below the Queen's portrait and no date on that side. Fakes are common, and they often look paler than a real 50p, with the Queen's eye rendered wrongly. A Kew design with Jody Clark's portrait and a 2019 date came from a set, not from change.

Known varieties of the Kew Gardens 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• 2019 reissue: Struck again dated 2019 with the fifth portrait for the brilliant uncirculated 50 Years of the 50p sets. Not issued for circulation.

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, reached their 250th anniversary in 2009, and the Royal Mint marked it with a 50p by Christopher Le Brun, a painter and former President of the Royal Academy of Arts. He chose the Great Pagoda, a Chinese-style tower designed by the architect Sir William Chambers and built two years after the gardens were founded, for Princess Augusta, who established them. On the coin the pagoda stands upright in the centre with a climbing plant winding around it, the tower dividing the two anniversary dates, and the word Kew is written at its base. Unusually, there is no value on the tails side. FIFTY PENCE moves to the heads side instead, beneath Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen, and that side carries no date. The coin became famous in 2014, when its low circulation mintage became widely known, and prices climbed sharply as people searched their change. The design was struck again in 2019 for the 50 Years of the 50p sets.