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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Emma Munbodh

Rare Olympic 50p sells for almost £600 thanks to incredibly special feature

A seemingly ordinary fifty-pence-piece has just sold for almost £600 after racking up dozens of bids online.

The coin, which was launched in 2011 as part of the Royal Mint's Olympics collection, sold for £590 on eBay after sending collectors into meltdown.

That's more than 1,180 times its face value - and there are thought to be hundreds more in circulation exchanging hands every single day.

But what makes it so special exactly?

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

This included an Olympics Swimmer coin featuring wavy lines across the swimmer’s face, however only 600 were ever produced before the design was amended to show the athlete's full face.

Six-hundred is a tiny, tiny amount in the world of coin collecting. To put this into context, there are around 6.7million Battle of Hastings 50p coins in circulation and 2,179,000 Olympic Triathlon 50p coins out there right now.

And that's what makes it so valuable.

The coin, which sold for £590 on eBay, managed to amass 47 bids before selling for £590.

It was listed on May 13 for just 1p but sold 10 days later, after fetching bids from 12 interested parties.

Another sold for £820 online in 2014, according experts at ChangeChecker.org, but this has been the highest sale in recent years.

Fifty pence coins weigh 8g, according to the Royal Mint, and the seller photographed the coin on a set of scales that came in at 8.1g in a bid to prove that the coin was genuine, something that the bidders seemed satisfied with.

Have you spotted a rare coin in your spare change? Get in touch: emma.munbodh@mirror.co.uk.

Alternatively, see our guides on rare 50p coins and other special denominations, here.

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