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UK 50 Pence Commemorative Hunting

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NumisRob's Avatar
United Kingdom
17878 Posts
 Posted 07/29/2024  07:04 am  Show Profile   Check NumisRob's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add NumisRob to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Bumping this thread as a few days ago I got a £250 sack of 50p coins from a branch of my bank that I don't often frequent, in a wealthy south coast town.

A bit disappointing. In 500 coins there were only 14 commemoratives. That's a mere 2.8% of the total, only half my usual ratio (in 17,540 50p coins I've sorted through I've found 987 commemoratives).

There were no post-2022 coins. The best find was a Jemima Puddleduck (mintage 2,100,000), the first I've found for ages:
UK-50-Pence-Commemorative-Hunting

Here's a breakdown of the commemoratives:
2005 Dictionary 2
2006 Victoria Cross Medal 1
2007 Scouts 1
2016 Battle of Hastings 1
2016 Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 2
2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck 1
2017 Benjamin Bunny 2
2017 Tale of Peter Rabbit 1
2018 Paddington at Station 1
2020 Diversity 1
2022 Charles III 1

Among scarcer 'definitive' coins, I found three Britannia reverse 2008 coins (mintage 3,5 million) and one 2017 (mintage 1.8 million).

I am sure commemorative 50 pence coins in general are becoming scarcer due to hoarding and people seeing insane selling prices on ebay!
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jbuck's Avatar
United States
187446 Posts
 Posted 07/29/2024  08:41 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jbuck to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Good to see you back on the hunt. At least you were not completely shut out, still some decent finds.
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Dearborn's Avatar
United States
94586 Posts
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Errers and Varietys's Avatar
United States
73559 Posts
 Posted 07/29/2024  11:20 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Nice duck coin, NumisRob.
Errers and Varietys.
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NumisRob's Avatar
United Kingdom
17878 Posts
 Posted 08/01/2024  07:42 am  Show Profile   Check NumisRob's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add NumisRob to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Strangely, after finding no 2011 Olympic 50p's at all in this last sack, I got a Wheelchair Rugby one in change in Canterbury yesterday!
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jbuck's Avatar
United States
187446 Posts
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Errers and Varietys's Avatar
United States
73559 Posts
 Posted 08/01/2024  11:26 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Nice find, NumisRob.
Errers and Varietys.
Valued Member
United Kingdom
375 Posts
 Posted 08/02/2024  01:29 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Spyro to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Hi there Merv. I did a similar thing a few years ago (limited it to £100 a week though so as not to upset my bank) and it certainly filled a few gaps. Considering the mintage of some of those commemoratives though I'm sure a few other people have had the same idea. Then there are all the shop assistants who find one in their change and put them on ebay for silly money! Well done mate!
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NumisRob's Avatar
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17878 Posts
 Posted 01/19/2026  2:37 pm  Show Profile   Check NumisRob's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add NumisRob to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I needed to go to the bank today and decided on the spur of the moment to get some 50p coins to sort through. The cashier let me have £150 worth - 300 coins.

I expected to find about 15 commemorative coins. Imagine how surprised I was to find that several of the £10 bags contained predominately commemoratives. It must have been a collection dump! I ended up with 150 commemoratives (half of the total!) plus several miscellaneous coins! The photo shows the miscellaneous coins at the top, the normal definitive coins in two rows and the commemoratives in three rows.
UK-50-Pence-Commemorative-Hunting
Summary of commemorative coins found:
1994 D-Day 1 (this is a large-size 50p, no longer legal tender!)
1998 NHS 3
1998 EU 2
2000 Libraries 6
2004 Roger Bannister 4
2005 Dictionary 18
2006 Victoria Cross (soldier) 1
2006 Victoria Cross (medal) 5
2007 Scouts 4
2010 Girl Guides 4
2011 Olympics 3 (Cycling, Equestrian, Triathlon)
2013 Christopher Ironside 6
2014 Commonwealth Games 1
2015 Battle of Britain 1
2016 Team GB 4
2016 Battle of Hastings 4
2016 Beatrix Potter 2
2016 Peter Rabbit 4
2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck 1
2016 Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 5
2017 Benjamin Bunny 12
2017 Tom Kitten 5
2017 Mr Jeremy Fisher 4
2017 Tale of Peter Rabbit 5
2018 Representation of the People 3
2018 Paddington at the Station 1
2018 Mrs Tittlemouse 1
2018 Peter Rabbit 2
2018 Tailor of Gloucester 1
2019 Paddington at the Tower 5
2019 Paddington at St Paul's 5
2019 Sherlock Holmes 3
2020 Brexit 6
2020 Diversity 12
2022 Platinum Jubilee 1

Other interesting coins
1977 UK 50p 1 (large size, no longer legal tender)
Jersey 2006 2
Gibraltar 2008 1
East Caribbean $1 (wrong shape!) 1

There were 301 coins altogether so the smaller and lighter East Caribbean dollar was probably not picked up by the scales at the bank.

There's nothing really rare, but the Jemima Puddle-Duck coins can sell for up to £10 on ebay, and the 2018 Peter Rabbit coins are very scarce (mintage 1,400,000). I've only ever found one previously in all the time since they were issued. The Britannia Coin Company sells them for £20 each!

Many of the coins from 2011-6 were in virtually BU condition, making me wonder if they had been put aside at the time.
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jbuck's Avatar
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Errers and Varietys's Avatar
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 Posted 01/19/2026  5:06 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Nice results.
Errers and Varietys.
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NumisRob's Avatar
United Kingdom
17878 Posts
 Posted 02/25/2026  05:51 am  Show Profile   Check NumisRob's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add NumisRob to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
After my last batch, I didn't think I'd get another collection dump, but yesterday I think I hit the Mother Lode!

I needed to go to the bank for something else, and asked if they had £250 in 50p coins. As soon as I got the bag, I spotted a 2003 Suffragettes coin through the plastic - not a rare coin, but one you don't see every day. When I got home and cut the big plastic sack open, the first £10 bag I opened had nothing but commemoratives! This went on and on.

Thr final result was:
- 489 commemorative British 50p coins
- 10 50p's from Crown dependencies
- 1 normal definitive 50p

Here is a breakdown of what I found...

Commemorative coins:
1998 NHS 2
1998 EU 4
2000 Libraries 19
2003 Suffragettes 2
2004 Roger Bannister 9
2005 Dictionary 50
2006 VC Soldier 16
2006 VC Medal 14
2007 Scouts 4
2009 Kew Gardens 0
2010 Guides 9
2011 WWF 5
2011 Olympics Aquatics 2
2011 Olympics Archery 3
2011 Olympics Boccia 1
2011 Olympics Fencing 1
2011 Olympics Gymnastics 1
2011 Olympics Handball 2
2011 Olympics Judo 1
2011 Olympics Taekwondo 1
2011 Olympics Tennis 1
2011 Olympics Triathlon 1
2014 Ironside 12
2013 Benjamin Britten 5
2014 Games 7
2015 Battle of Britain 6
2016 Team GB 9
2016 Battle of Hastings 8
2016 Beatrix Potter 9
2016 Peter Rabbit 7
2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck 1
2016 Squirrel Nutkin 2
2016 Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 14
2017 Isaac Newton 2
2017 Benjamin Bunny 46
2017 Tom Kitten 18
2017 Mr Jeremy Fisher 13
2017 Tale of Peter Rabbit 24
2018 Representation of People 25
2018 Paddington at Palace 15
2018 Paddington at Station 7
2018 Mrs Tittlemouse 2
2018 Peter Rabbit 1
2018 Flopsy Bunny 4
2018 Tailor of Gloucester 6
2019 Paddington at Tower 13
2019 Paddington at St Paul's 25
2019 Sherlock Holmes 4
2020 Brexit 18
2020 Diversity 34
2022 Pride 0
2022 Platinum Jubilee 4
2022 Charles III 4 shields 0
2023 Charles III Coronation 0

Others:
Isle of Man 2010 1
Isle of Man 2015 1 (collection addition)
Isle of Man 2016 1 (collection addition)
Jersey 1997 2
Jersey 2009 1
Gibraltar 1997 1
Gibraltar 2001 1
Gibraltar 2015 1 (collection addition!)
Gibraltar 2017 referendum 1 (collection addition)

The 14 Olympic 50p's I found (usually lucky to get one in a £250 bag!):
UK-50-Pence-Commemorative-Hunting
The various Crown Dependencies coins:
UK-50-Pence-Commemorative-Hunting
Other scarce 50p coins I found:
UK-50-Pence-Commemorative-Hunting
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jbuck's Avatar
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Errers and Varietys's Avatar
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 Posted 02/25/2026  10:15 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Nice haul!
Errers and Varietys.
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