Exact detail to spot on rare 50p after coin sells for £164 on eBay

A rare 50p coin has recently sold for a whopping £164 on eBay and you could have one in your spare change.

One of the UK's "rarest" coins is now the Atlantic Salmon 50p which recently dethroned the famous Kew Gardens 50p coin and is not the hardest one to find. Due to this, the value of this coin has shot up, according to Change Checker's new eBay Tracker. The tracker analyses the last nine sold prices on secondhand sales platforms and gives the median price of them all. The tracker recently valued the Atlantic Salmon at £85 - this is almost six times more than the original value or over 477% more.

Change Checker said: "We added the Salmon 50p to our eBay Tracker back in June 2024 as it was one of the newest coins to enter circulation. Back then, you could get your hands on one on the secondary market for under £15. However, now that we know just how rare it is, it’s selling for around £85 - that’s a 477% increase on average!"

The Atlantic Salmon and bearing the King's portrait, it is the rarest such coin in circulation (Image:PA)

The 50p coin features an engraving of salmon, which takes up just over half of the coin on the tail side. On the head is the official portrait of King Charles III. It is one of eight new designs for coins in the UK - first unveiled in 2023 - and all of them feature designs inspired by plants and animals found across the country.

The 1p depicts a hazel dormouse, the 2p the red squirrel, the 5p an oak tree leaf, the 10p the critically endangered woodland grouse the capercaillie, the 20p a puffin, the 50p a salmon, the £1 sees two bees, and the £2 features a rose for England, a daffodil for Wales, a thistle for Scotland and a shamrock for Northern Ireland.

In total, just 200,000 of the 50p were minted by the Royal Mint in 2023 as part of a commemorative series marking the ascension of King Charles III. This is much lower than the Kew Garden's coin, which had 210,000 coins minted 15 years ago.

According to the eBay tracker, the Kew Gardens coin is still the most expensive 50p coin at £145, but demand for Atlantic Salmon is on the rise much quicker. Since June 2024, the Salmon coin has increased by almost £70, while the Kew Gardens coin has actually decreased in value - down £3.

On October 7, one 50p Atlantic Salmon coin sold for £164 on eBay, with 51 bidders fighting for it. On December 16, another 50p coin sold for £147, with 37 bidding, while another went for £109 after 24 bids. However, it may not always be as high as this, as one coin recently sold on the platform had 11 bids and went for significantly less at £88 - another went for even less at £84.

If you find yourself in possession of a rare coin, you may want to follow others and sell it. However, selling a coin on eBay is never guaranteed, and a coin is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

If you are a collector, then 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.