Rare 50p coins featuring Olympic swimmers sell for £10,000

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The rare 50p coins featuring Olympic swimmers that sell for £10,000

  • Some commemorative coins produced for the London 2012 Olympics are rare
  • The original accidentally incorporated wavy lines obscuring the swimmer’s face 
  • Only 600 were released before the mistake was spotted and the coin re-minted

By Toby Walne for The Mail on Sunday

Published: | Updated:

Rare 50p coins featuring Olympic swimmers are selling for hundreds or even thousands of pounds online.

One sold for £410 last week and a similar version sold for £10,100 in June.

Some 29 sports featured on the commemorative coins produced for the London 2012 Olympics. But the original accidentally incorporated wavy lines obscuring the swimmer’s face (below). 

 

Valuable: The original accidentally incorporated wavy lines obscuring the swimmer’s face

Only 600 were released before the mistake was spotted and the coin re-minted.

Until the five-figure record price was reached on eBay in June, rare ‘wavy lines’ coins were selling for £800.

It is not the only 50p piece that attracts collectors – but many are perfect specimens.

In 2016, a set of Beatrix Potter coins was issued to mark 150 years since the author’s birth. A Peter Rabbit coin in this set has sold for £1,000.

Another sought-after 50p is the 2009 example with an image of the Kew Gardens pagoda, which changes hands for £200. Just 210,000 examples were made to commemorate the botanical gardens’ 250th anniversary.

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