Tom Kitten 50p (2017)

Tom Kitten edges out Mr Jeremy Fisher as the least common 2017 design, but the margin is slight and both remain easy to find, so condition matters more than which of the two you hold. A bright, unworn coin sells for more than a scratched one. Brilliant uncirculated examples from Royal Mint packs are priced well above circulated coins, and the coloured silver proof is sold as a separate collector piece.

With 9,500,000 struck for circulation, the Tom Kitten 50p is the 65th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 141st lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Uncommon band, for mintages 2,500,000 to 9,999,999.

The next rarer 50p is the Roger Bannister 50p, with 9,032,500 struck, and the next more common is the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial 50p, with 9,600,000 struck.

Look for a kitten facing straight out in the centre of the reverse, wearing clothes, with TOM KITTEN around the rim and divided by his figure. He is the only cat in the Beatrix Potter 50ps. The date 2017 is on the heads side beside the Queen's portrait. Colour on the kitten means a silver proof, not a coin from change, and no varieties of the circulating coin are recorded.

Tom Kitten was the third release of 2017, the second year of The Royal Mint's Beatrix Potter series. He is the kitten from The Tale of Tom Kitten, published in 1907, whose mother dresses him up for a tea party. Emma Noble drew him facing the viewer and dressed in his best clothes, following Potter's original illustrations, and placed him in the centre so that his figure splits the name TOM KITTEN as it runs round the edge. Her initials en are included on the reverse. The obverse, by Jody Clark, shows Queen Elizabeth II with the 2017 date. The other three coins that year featured Peter Rabbit, Mr Jeremy Fisher and Benjamin Bunny. The Royal Mint also made a coloured silver proof of this design for collectors.

It was one of the four coins in the Beatrix Potter set issued in 2017.