Every now and then, rare coins explode out of our little specialist world and into the mainstream. 

Usually because there's a chance to get money for nothing. 

That's not condemnatory: there's nothing wrong with money for nothing.

It's excellent. 

However, it's rare, and promises of money for nothing are not usually to be trusted. 

At the moment, the viral hit coin is the Brexit 50p. 

Many millions of this coin, with the correct date were issued. 

And, sadly, we have to say some people are trying to take advantage of this moment. 

Brexit coins with the correct date of "31 January 2020" are neither rare not particularly valuable, so they should not be listed for £60,000 on online sale sites. But they are. 

Please be cautious when shopping online and particularly around viral, high-profile moments like this. 

Rare 50ps - can you find treasure in your change? 

50 pence coins are popular with change collectors. 

And why not? They're big, beautiful and different. 

So different that when Hugh Conway and Colin Lewis conspired to smuggle in some smart mathematical and engineering ideas from the aero industry in 1969 an "Anti-heptagonist" group set up in opposition its seven sides. 

Time was agains the naysayers though, and the big faces of the 50p have made it a favourite for commemorative issues. 

And this is where rarity comes in. 

As we're fond of telling our readers, the vast majority of modern coins are worth their face value and sometimes even less. 

They're produced in such huge numbers and are so robust that rarity will never apply. 

Mints make special issues and proof sets for collectors. These have some value, and may have more in time, but because they're also produced in quite large (though limited) numbers specifically to be treasured and preserved most of them will be. They will never become as rare as the real treasures of the coin collecting world. 

The 2009 Kew Gardens 50p is a much-loved favourite.

That leaves us with a few very exceptional coins that fit in between these worlds. 

They include errors, which are even fewer and further between in the high-tech world of the 21st century. 

And, special issue coins that go into circulation, but in small enough numbers that collectors cannot easily find them. 

These are needles in very large haystacks. 

The 50p (alongside the £2 coin) is consistently the best performing "pocket change" find for collectors. 

Although the number of each minted is huge by most standards, they aren't as common as some other issues. 

For example, in 2023 the Mint issued over 10 million £1 coins and no £2 coins, putting out just over 4 million of the higher-value coin the year before. 

A 2015 £2 coin. Some of these are rare too. 

Such figures fluctuate alongside a complex set of economic decisions, and this can produce small enough numbers in some years to make dated, general issue coins from those years particularly valuable. 

Then, we have special occasions. 

Our coins are actually rather nice little works of art. 

Even the standard issues are really nicely and carefully put together. 

Commemorative issues are even nicer. And, they are - by their nature - issued for a short period of time. 

Some become rare enough that collectors will pay large sums for them. 

The most famous recent 50p to meet these criteria is the Kew Gardens issue of 2009:

Only 210,000 were made.

It's a very lovely design that people wanted to hang on to.

Coin collectors are very savvy, and they numismatic community immediately tagged this issue as a potential gold mine and took a lot of them out of circulation. 

And so onto the latest such nugget. 

The Brexit 50p

It is an error. 

It's also a historically significant error. 

Britain should have left the European Union on October 31, 2019. 

However, arranging the exit proved less simple than voting for it. 

Coins designed to commemorate the exit were minted, but then ditched. 

Theresa May and Donald Tusk were unable to hammer out a deal in time to meet their first deadline for Brexit. 

They should have been recycled. 

All 1 million of them. 

And not all of them were. 

So far, two have been discovered and the coin is being valued at £40,000. 

So, a hunt is on. 

The planned exit did happen, and it was commemorated with a commemorative 50p. 

That carries the eventual date of Brexit, January 31st, 2020. 

No doubt, lots of those have been held onto, but with around 10 million minted they are unlikely to be very valuable for a very long time. 

If the 1,000 test coins made for an even earlier date, March 29, 2019, start to turn up then they may be worth even more. 

How many October 2019 Brexit coins got out though? 

That's the big question. 

It's possible they're not real. The Royal Mint has refused to authenticate them. 

In the end though, these coins are worth what people will pay for them, and that £40,000 figure seems good, at least for the moment. 

If large numbers are now found that figure will naturally go down. 

There's a lot of mystery still attached to these coins, but it is certainly aboslutely free to check your pocket change for one and it is absolutely worth doing. 

Buy rare British coins today

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