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The first coins with the portrait of King Charles III will come into circulation within a few weeks.
For starters, the 50p coins will be distributed exclusively at post offices, Money Mail can reveal.
And anticipation is already building among collectors. Sellers on the online marketplace eBay advertise the 50 pence pieces at inflated prices – even before they are available. Some are even listing the new 50p coins for as much as £10.
We can reveal that the first 50 cent coins with the portrait of King Charles III will be distributed exclusively at post offices
The excitement is partly because the 50p pieces will be the only coins in circulation bearing His Majesty’s portrait and ‘2022’ – the year of his accession to the throne. The Royal Mint will not be producing another coin depicting the king this year.
So should you try to get your hands on a new 50p in pristine condition? And will it be worth a dime for years to come?
With 9.6 million of the new 50p coins expected to be minted this year, experts think they could sell for a little more than face value in the secondary market, but don’t expect to earn a pretty penny in the long run .
Joe Trewick, from researchers The Coin Expert, says: ‘Given the high circulation, we would not expect the coin to have a significant resale value.
“However, as this is the first 50p in circulation with King Charles III, there’s no doubt the value could go higher initially as collectors rush to add it.”
The first coins will enter circulation when the current 50p shares with the Queen’s portrait are running low. This is now expected to happen in mid-December. Royal Mint began producing the coins at the end of October.
Other denominations with the portrait of the king will follow next year at the earliest.
Like all coins in circulation, the new 50p is denominated. This means that the face value will be only 50 pence.
But that cannot prevent prices on the secondary market from rising.
Searching eBay for ‘King Charles III 50p’ returns over 50 listings showing off the latest design. Some offers have brought in half a dozen bidders.
International bidders — namely collectors in the US who are fans of the Royals — will be among those looking to buy, the experts say.
Dominic Chorney, coin specialist at AH Baldwin & Sons, says: “With the popularity of the monarchy abroad, I am sure many of King Charles III’s new coins will be of interest to collectors and non-collectors alike.”
The 50p features a portrait of the king from his 70th birthday. The number being minted is roughly the same number of 50p coins created to commemorate Brexit, with the words ‘Peace, Prosperity and Friendship to all Nations’.
According to tradition, His Majesty faces left on the coin (the opposite direction from the late Queen) and wears no crown. The reverse is a copy of the design used on the crown minted to commemorate the Queen’s coronation in 1953.
It shows the four quarters of the Royal Arms in a shield. Between each shield is an emblem of the home nations.
The first coins will be distributed exclusively in Post Office branches and will enter circulation when the current 50p stocks with the Queen’s portrait run out and need to be replaced
The coins will circulate alongside approximately 27 billion coins featuring the late queen, which are still accepted in stores.
Banknotes depicting the king will not be put into circulation until 2024, the Bank of England has confirmed.
Since 1968 there have been 104 different 50p designs. Most of these coins are far from rare because they are produced in such large numbers.
The most common 50p face – the 1968 Britannia design – has approximately 188,400,000 units in circulation. In recent years, 10 million has become a typical mintage figure for new 50p coins.
Mr Trewick, from The Coin Expert, says 50p pieces minted in that kind of quantity sell for between £1.14 and £1.37 on the secondary market. Thus, they are primarily regarded as souvenirs, as opposed to collectibles.
Mr Chorney, from AH Baldwin & Sons, says: ‘Nearly 10 million coins is a huge number of coins to mint in a year – as you would expect when celebrating a new monarch.
As such, those coins are unlikely to ever have any rarity value, especially since the Royal Mint has told us how many it makes.
By comparison, the only 50p coins with any real rarity value are the Kew Gardens coins [see panel] published on the occasion of the jubilee in 2009.’
Other low mintage 50p coins include some of the 29 different designs launched ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, and 2018 Peter Rabbit coins.
Some of these were struck less than 1.5 million times.
So, can enthusiasts apply for a King Charles 50p at the Post Office?
‘It doesn’t hurt to ask… whether post offices will hand out the coins on demand is at their discretion,’ says Mr Chorney.
Uncirculated commemorative coins honoring the late Queen – which also feature the King on the obverse – are likely to increase in value given their rarity, Chorney says.
To buy from the Mint, prices range from £11 for the Brilliant Uncirculated 50p coin to a whopping £2,395 for the Gold Proof Piedfort 50p coin.
l.purkess@dailymail.co.uk
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