1. Peter Rabbit 50p 2017 Set
2. Peter Rabbit 50p 2017 Circulated Value
3. Peter Rabbit 50p 2017 How Much Is It Worth
4. Peter Rabbit 50p 2017

One of the Peter Rabbit coins recently sold for £1,000 on eBay, after five people bid for the rare 50p, while another sold for £840. The 2016 coins are the rarest out there, but there have since been additional releases in 2017 and 2018, with coins featuring Flopsy Bunny, Mrs Tittlemouse, The Tailor of Gloucester and a new Peter Rabbit design. With the Tales of Beatrix Potter striking a nostalgic chord that runs across many generations, it is no surprise that the Royal Mint's inspired tributes to the literary series have been so popular. With the release of the 2017 Peter Rabbit 50p coins, that popularity is sure to soar to even greater heights.

Many versions of the 50p have been issued, but few have the potential to raise a smile like the Peter Rabbit coin.

And while the whimsical designs can transport us back to our childhood, the Beatrix Potter coins can also be sought after by collectors.

The Royal Mint has revealed the rarest 50p coins in circulation ahead of the 50th anniversary of decimilisation, with the Peter Rabbit coin among the scarcest.

Here’s how it compares to other low-mintage designs, including other Beatrix Potter tributes, and which coins you should look out for.

How rare is the Peter Rabbit 50p coin?

There are actually various iterations of the Peter Rabbit 50p coin, and the scarcity varies wildly from version to version.

By far the rarest example is the 2018 coin, with a mintage of 1,400,000, which puts it sixth on the Royal Mint’s top 10 rankings alongside the Flopsy Bunny 50p from the same year.

In contrast, the 2016 Peter Rabbit coin is comparatively common, with a mintage of 9,700,000, while the 2017 version was minted 19,900,000 times.

The 2016 design was introduced to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter, featuring the beloved children’s book character in an up-close, front-on portratit with prominent whiskers.

Following the popularity of this coin, the more common 2017 edition depicted Peter side-on as he hopped towards adventure.

The 2018 edition – the rarest to look out for – shows the rabbit as he was painted by the author, happily biting into radishes in the garden of the curmudgeonly Mr McGregor.

A further commemorative edition of the Peter Rabbit 50p was released in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the coin.

There are other relatively rare Beatrix Potter 50p coins in circulation, with the 2018 Mrs Tittlemouse and 2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck designs having mintages of 1,700,000 and 2,100,000 respectively.

The most common coins in circulation have a mintage in the tens or even hundreds of millions – the 1997 Britannia 50p, for example, was minted 456,364,100 times.

What are the rarest 50p coins in circulation?

As well as the Beatrix Potter designs, the Royal Mint’s list of the rarest 50p is dominated by the 2011 coins released to commemorate the London 2012 Olympics.

However, the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p remains by far the rarest coin in circulation, with a mintage of just 210,000:

Peter Rabbit 50p 2017 Set

1. 2009 Kew Gardens, 210,000

2. 2011 Olympic Wrestling, 1,129,500

=3. 2011 Olympic Football, 1,161,500

=3. 2011 Olympic Judo, 1,161,500

5. 2011 Olympic Triathlon, 1,163,500

=6. 2018 Peter Rabbit, 1,400,000

=6. 2018 Flopsy Bunny, 1,400,000

8. 2011 Olympic Tennis, 1,454,000

Peter Rabbit 50p 2017 Circulated Value

9. 2011 Olympic Goalball, 1,615,500

10. 2011 Olympic Shooting, 1,656,500

How much are the Beatrix Potter 50p coins worth?

The rare coins website Change Checker has an eBay tracker, which details how some 50p coins can fetch significant sums in the secondary sale market.

According to this, the most valuable of the Beatrix Potter coins is actually the Jemima Puddle-Duck design, which fetched an average of £12.00 over the nine most recent completed eBay sales up to mid-January.

This is significantly behind the rarest Kew Gardens 50p coin, which reportedly attracted an average price of £156.00.

There are are no shortage sellers on eBay purporting to sell a range of rare 50p coins, which tend to offer the 2018 Peter Rabbit design for between £9 and £15.

It should be pointed out, as Change Checker states, the market in supposedly valuable coins “can be a bit of a minefield,” and it’s important to do your research before being taken in by viral stories of coins fetching huge sums.

Last year, for example, various reports claimed a Battle of Hastings 50p sold for £63,000 on eBay, supposedly because it was “very rare”.

Peter Rabbit 50p 2017 How Much Is It Worth

This coin was launched in 2016 to commemorate the famous battle’s 950th anniversary, with as many as 6.7 million entering circulation.

Speaking to The Mirror, Alexandra Fiddons from Change Checker wasn’t able to explain exactly why the coin would sell for such a purportedly high fee, but said that sometimes “random coins” do reach surprising prices.

Peter Rabbit 50p 2017

While some coins can fetch sums comfortably above their 50p value, often it is “error coins” – versions which found their way into circulation after being minted with mistakes – which are particularly valued by collectors.