The coin may be for just of 50 pence denomination but its value is several times over! These are the rare 50 pence coins that were minted with the United Kingdom’s iconic Kew Gardens on one side.

These are now being sold for 284 times more than its face value. The eBay auction site sold one of these coins for £142. One side this coin depicts London’s famous landmark the “Chinese Pagoda”.

The Chinese Pagoda is an important structure which came up in Kew Gardens, situated southwest London in 1761 and was built by Sir William Chambers as a present for Princess Augusta, who had founded the gardens. The pagoda has 10 storeys, is 163 feet high and made of grey brick.

In 2009, only 210,000 coins with this pagoda were minted and released to celebrate 250 years of the opening of Kew Gardens. Being rare in circulation, they are considered valuable by the collectors, who are willing to part with a considerable amount to get hold of them.

September 12 witnessed one of them being sold for £142 on eBay. This single coin had got 37 bids during the auction which went on for three days. Though the bidding commenced with 99 pence, it went on to zoom to £142 with a collector paying the amount for the coin.

Interestingly, the seller threw in the offer of free delivery of the coin to the buyer of this rare coin which was described as “circulated but in good condition” when it was listed.

The mid-point price for a Kew Gardens 50p coin is £156.25 according to the collectors and the average selling price of this coveted coin is between £150.89 and £161.50.

The Royal Mint in 2019 had reissued a batch of 50p coins, and these had reportedly fetch £70 to £80 to sellers on the auction site.