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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Levi Winchester

Rare Blue Peter 50p coin sells for £286 after eBay bidding war - check your change

A rare Blue Peter Olympic 50p coin has sold for £286 on eBay - a whopping 570 times its original value.

The design features an athlete doing the high jump and was drawn by nine-year-old Florence Jackson back in 2009.

The youngster had taken part in a Blue Peter competition to create a coin for the London 2012 Olympic games, with her drawing now immortalised forever in the form of the 50p.

Around 2.2million of the Blue Peter coins were minted in 2011 and released into circulation, but an earlier version of the coin was minted in 2009.

The 2009 version is much more valuable to collectors as just under 20,000 of these were made and sold on the Royal Mint for £1.99.

The coin was designed by nine-year-old Florence Jackson (PA)

These coins were never officially put into circulation when they were minted - but that doesn't mean some didn't enter everyday transactions.

In the eBay listing, the coin sold for £286 after attracting 23 bids over a seven-day auction, with a starting price of just 1p.

The description reads: "RARE 2009 Blue Peter 50p NGC Graded Coin MS 68. Sent Royal Mail Special delivery only."

We've previously seen how one of these Blue Peter 50p coins sold for £205 on eBay back in April this year, and before that one fetched £148 on the auction site.

But the price you'll get when buying or selling a coin on eBay is never guaranteed.

You should also keep in mind that fake coins can appear online too, so always be wary before handing over any cash.

Websites and Facebook groups from change experts like Coin Hunter can help you work out if a coin is the real deal or not.

You can also get coins verified by the Royal Mint.

In 2010 and 2011, 29 new 50p designs were released into circulation to mark the 2012 Olympics games in London.

These are still proving popular with collectors, as a list of rarest 50p coins in circulation in 2021 featured seven Olympic coins in its top ten list.

If you have an error coin, it could be worth a lot too - but these are also much harder to find.

For example, an error coin of a swimmer for the Olympics collection sold for £600 in 2019.

We've got a guide on the rarest error coins that could be worth up to £3,100.

Another coin to watch out for is this bizarre 20p with no date on - it can fetch up to £60 on eBay.

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