Rare Kew Gardens 50p sells for £160 – but can you spot the fakes?
The Kew Gardens 50p coin usually sells for around £50 but now collectors are paying up to £160
COLLECTORS scrambling for the rarest 50p coin are willing to pay up to £160 on eBay but could they be fooled by a fake?
A total of 210,000 Kew Gardens 50p coins were minted in 2009, making it one of the most sought-after coins in circulation.
It usually sells for around £70 on eBay, but now collectors are paying up to 320 times its value.
The coin, which was designed by Christopher Le Brun, depicts the famous west London garden pagoda encircled in vine leaves with the dates "1759" and "2009" with the work Kew at the base.
But according to the fake versions of the coin can easily be purchased online and could end up on legitimate marketplaces.
A new website lists common faults to help buyers and sellers weed out any fake coins.
It notes that coins with an slightly golden colour as well as a non-frosted portrait are often giveaways that it is not genuine.
Other key faults include a very pointing pagoda tower, as well as the word "kew" missing from the bottom.
MORE ON RARE COINS AND NOTES
On the other side of the coin the Queen facing the wrong way, or the size of the designers initials (IRB) may be too large or too small.
Yesterday, the Treasury unveiled a new set of coins to commemorate Brexit.
In April, The Sun revealed the 10 coins which could be worth up to £7,000.
The best way to find out if your error coin is genuine
RARE and valuable coins can go for a hefty sum - but how do you know your coin is the result of a genuine minting error?
The best way to find out if you have an error coin is to send it to the Royal Mint museum, who will analyse it and see if it is a result of a genuine minting error or not.
It'll normally take a couple of weeks to get the results back to you.
And remember, there's a difference between a genuine error coin and one that is just imperfect, for example with a design that is not as clear as you'd expect.
And whatever you do don't be tempted to splash your cash without evidence from the mint confirming that it's a genuine error.
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