The 'Cross Crosslet' New Pound Coin

Things like this really come down to supply and demand. Low mintage doesn't always mean it's worth more.

The kew 50p is popular as it's usually the last hole to be filled in people's 50p album and demand usually outstrips demand.

Small varieties such as this mint mark are rather more niche and I suspect will have a lot lower demand. As a type collector I'd be just as happy with a regular pound!

As stated above, "rarity" does not always equal "high value". Take the coins which were only issued in proof sets (eg 1972, 1992). Mintages are all much lower than the Kew Gardens 50p, yet they sell for a couple of pounds each.

The difference is "demand". Everyone wants the Kew Gardens 50p, nobody wants those proof coins. If the only difference between the "normal" coins and this coin is the mintmark, then it's likely to be perceived as an "artificial" rarity, and thus will not be in high demand. But collectors are a strange breed, hard to predict. If we knew in advance which coins would be worth a lot and which would be duds, we'd all be a lot richer.


I can't say I have anything British, but I do have a story like this. My dad bought me a Tuvalu Redback Spider dollar for my birthday; he'd gotten onto one of of those "coin of the month" mass-marketing huckster company mailing lists and this was one of the coins they'd sent; he'd have paid $90 for it. The company probably thought it would be a fizzer, just like most of the coins they sold. But that particular coin proved extraordinarily popular; they can be worth over AU$1000 now.

Likewise, a coin dealer friend of mine twisted my arm back in 2000 to buy the last Victoria Cross dollar he had in stock, for issue price ($10). Those are now worth over $100.

These stories are rare, and prove the unpredictability of the collector market. If you'd asked me if either of those coins would skyrocket in price, I'd have said maybe the VC dollar, but not the stupid spider thing.