Money

Rare Snowman 50p coin sells for £336 on eBay – do you have one in your wallet?


A RARE 50p featuring the Snowman has sold on eBay for £336 – that’s 672 times face value.

The coin was listed on the auction site for 99p but its price shot up after receiving 41 bids over the seven days that is was on sale for.

 The rare The Snowman coins was released in 2003

3

The rare The Snowman coins was released in 2003Credit: eBay

The 50 pence pieces were launched on the Isle of Man back in 2003 so the likelihood of one of them turning up in your change is slim, but not impossible.

Only 10,000 were ever minted, according to coin specialists Change Checker, making them really rare and valuable among collectors.

To put that in perspective, the coin that’s considered to be the rarest and most sought after in circulation is the Kew Gardens design and only 210,000 of them were struck.

They typically fetch around £160 online so you could be quids in if you found one of these Snowman coins instead.

 The coin was originally listed for 99p before the bidding war began

3

The coin was originally listed for 99p before the bidding war beganCredit: eBay
 The coins were launched in the Isle of Man in 2003

3

The coins were launched in the Isle of Man in 2003Credit: eBay

The limited-edition coin was released on the British Isle to make the 25th anniversary of Raymond Brigg’s much-loved children’s book, The Snowman.

On it, The Snowman is holding onto his friend, James’, hands as they run to take off to fly above the tree tops.

As a Crown Dependency, the island issues its own notes and coins but they’re not technically legal tender in the UK so you won’t be able to spend one in a shop.

Instead of being made by the Royal Mint, the 50p was struck at the Pobjoy Mint in Surrey, which made all of the coins for the Isle of Man until two years ago.

The coin was re-released in 2008 with the same design but it never entered into circulation and featured a different date.

The 50p pennies never normally sell for anything less than £200 – last year, we reported how one of them sold for £290 online.

The seller was honest in their description of the coin, letting buyers know that there are some scratch markings on its surface even though it was uncirculated.

Coins typically sell for more the closer they are to mint condition.

The Royal Mint launched its own The Snowman 50p coin in 2018, and they sold out in just a few hours.

Coin collectors could get their hands on a new The Snowman coin released last year, featuring the Christmas character standing firmly on a snow-carpeted lawn with James in front of him and the forest in the background.

They’re not the only 50p coins that are worth a mint – check out our guide to the most valuable ones that could turn up in your change.

What to do if you’ve found a rare coin

FIRSTLY, you need to make sure the coin is legitimate and not counterfeit.

Around one in every four old £1 coins were thought to be fake, according to the Royal Mint, so there are probably more fakers in your spare change then you realise.

The Royal Mint is unable to value a coin but it can confirm whether it is real or not. They will usually supply you with a letter to confirm this.

Once you’ve found out whether the coin is real or not, you have a number of options – either selling it through a coin dealer, at auction or on eBay.

Yule tide classic Channel 4’s Christmas classic ‘The Snowman’





READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.