A 'rare' fifty pence piece has exchanged hands for more than £200 online, and you could well have one hidden in your small change.
The Kew Gardens 50p, believed to be one of the most sought after coins in circulation, sold for £202 on eBay after attracting more than 10 bids over the course of a week.
The edition has long been topping rare coin indexes, and over the past few years has been named the most valuable 50p by money experts at ChangeChecker.
The 50p, which entered circulation in 2009, is stamped with the Kew Gardens Pagoda and with just 210,000 minted compared to a standard minting of around five million, it's classed as very valuable.
That is compared with 22.7million Royal Arms 50p coins minted in 2008 and 7.5million produced with a Girl guiding design in 2010.
And you could well have one in your small change.
According to the Royal Mint, around one in every 300 households in the UK could own a Kew Gardens 50p.
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Most of these coins sell online for anything between £30 and £190 online, depending on what condition they're in.
However, on eBay, one has just swapped hands for an eye-watering £202.74.
The coin was listed with a starting price of £80 and received 10 bids from three different buyers over a seven day auction period.
Eventually, the 50p coin sold for 405 times its face value, making the seller a tidy profit.
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And uncirculated versions of the coins are selling for even more online.
If you bought one of these 50ps directly from the Royal Mint for around £30 eleven years ago then you can expect to fetch around £300 today.
The coin – designed by Christopher Le Brun – shows the pagoda encircled by a vine with the dates 1759 and 2009 and the word Kew at the base.
And last year, The Royal Mint reissued a batch of them to mark five decades of the 50p.
But even though they never entered into circulation, Kew Gardens 50p coins stamped with the year "2019" have been known to fetch up to £74 on eBay.
Shane Bissett, director of commemorative coin at the Royal Mint, previously said: "Whilst we're urging everyone to check their change to see whether they could have one of these exceptional coins in their pockets, we also want to encourage the nation to look more closely at all of the coins we use every day.
"They really are miniature works of art worth looking out for, admiring and collecting – and keeping hold of them is a great way for us to build our own private art galleries.
"Now that people know just how rare this particular coin is we expect them to disappear from circulation fast."
Think you may be sitting on a fortune? See our guide on rare 50p coins and valuable money, here.
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