Check your pockets, wallets, purses and corners of your home as a 50p coin has sold for 214x its face value on eBay.

The seller said the Atlantic salmon 50p coin is “very rare to find” but there is a chance you’ll come across this coin in your spare change.

This is because it is one of eight coin designs that reflect the King’s passion for conservation and the natural world and in October 2023, the Royal Mint said it would expect the coins to enter circulation by the end of 2023.

The collection features different designs on coins ranging from the 1p to the £2.

The 50p coin sold for £107The 50p coin sold for £107 (Image: eBay) The Atlantic salmon 50p coin sold for £107 after starting a mini bidding war on the online auction site with 24 bids being placed.

Which other coins are in the collection?

The designs are inspired by flora and fauna, celebrating creatures such as the red squirrel, the hazel dormouse and the bee.

  • 1p – Hazel dormouse
  • 2p – Red squirrel
  • 5p – Oak tree leaf
  • 10p – Capercaillie
  • 20p – Puffin
  • 50p – Atlantic salmon
  • £1 – Bees
  • £2 – National flowers

The description of the Atlantic salmon 50p coin issued by the Royal Mint says: “Wild populations are low due to factors such as river pollution, habitat loss, river heating and overfishing.

“They can be found in clean rivers in Scotland and Wales along with those in North and South West England.”


How to get your old coins valued


At the time the designs were unveiled, the Royal Mint said the designs, officially known as definitives, mark the final chapter of the King’s transition onto coinage.

Recommended reading:

  • 'Check your change' - Rare coin sells for more than 300 times face value on eBay
  • 'Check your change': The rare 50p sold for almost 1,000 times its face value
  • How to get your old coins valued - are you sitting on a fortune?

Which Royal Mint 50p coin is the rarest?

The rarest of the Royal Mint’s most valuable 50p coins is the Atlantic salmon 50p coin.

The Kew Gardens 50p is also one of the rarest 50p coins.

Seven Olympic 50p coins from the 2012 Olympic Games feature in the Royal Mint’s top 10 most valuable 50p coins.