The Gruffalo 50p (2019)

Packaging makes the biggest difference to a Gruffalo 50p. The coin was sold in a bright fold-out Royal Mint card, and one still sealed in that card sells for more than the same coin loose or out of its card. After that, the surface matters: scratches or fingerprints across the Gruffalo's face and prickles are easy to see on a brilliant uncirculated finish. Both 2019 Gruffalo coins sold out, and the precious-metal versions trade at their own, higher levels.

The Gruffalo 50p was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank.

The Gruffalo 50p shows the monster without the Mouse, with THE GRUFFALO® lettered on the reverse; the later 2019 coin adds the Mouse, and the 2024 coin shows the Gruffalo's Child in the snow. On the heads side, the Queen's portrait and the 2019 date match the Gruffalo and Mouse coin. Colour silver proof and gold proof versions exist as well, each sold separately to collectors.

The Gruffalo 50p celebrated twenty years of The Gruffalo, the picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The story was voted the country's favourite bedtime story in 2009, the same year it became an animated film nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA. Its reverse was designed by Magic Light Pictures, the studio behind the animated films, working from Scheffler's drawings, and it shows the Gruffalo with the lettering THE GRUFFALO® on the design. The brilliant uncirculated finish brings out the detail of his teeth, tusks and prickles. The coin was sold in bright fold-out packaging styled on the book's original illustrations, with facts about the story and the people who made it. The obverse carries Jody Clark's fifth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. It was released on 19 February 2019, and a second coin showing the Gruffalo with the Mouse followed in October.

In the Gruffalo set it was issued in 2019 together with The Gruffalo and Mouse 50p.