The coin is one of 210,000 issued in 2009 to mark the 250th anniversary of Kew Gardens in Richmond, south east London
A rare 50p coin has sold for 645 times its value – after a collector snapped it up for an eye-watering £322.88 on eBay. The no-nonsense seller stated he wouldn’t be accepting any lower offers for the ‘highly sought-after’ coin, as he’d ‘rather keep it himself’. The coin is one of 210,000 issued in 2009 to mark the 250th anniversary of Kew Gardens in Richmond, south east London.
It displays the Chinese Pagoda tower from its impressive botanical gardens, which claims to be the most biodiverse place on Earth as it’s home to more than 30,000 plant species. One keen collector paid the hefty £322.88 buy-it-now listing price plus £3.94 postage to snap up the 50p piece on Sunday [October 26th].
That means the coin was sold for a little over 645 times its shop value and will be sure to have Brits checking their wallets and coat pockets and rummaging through their change. This is an uncirculated coin and the listing images show how it comes with a souvenir pack explaining its design and coin specifications. The gatefold pack explains designer Christopher Lee Brun chose to depict the Chinese Pagoda himself. It was erected by Sir William Chambers in 1762 and, at nearly 50 metres, was then the tallest reconstruction of a Chinese building in Europe. The 2009 coin was reissued in 2019 but a newer image of Queen Elizabeth II was used, making it easy to tell them apart.
