That’s because it is one of the old-sized 50p coins that were demonetised in 1998. Sadly, however hard you search, unlike the Kew Gardens 50p, you will not find this one in your change. But of course, its lack of popularity at the time, is the very thing that now makes its Britain’s rarest 50p coin. The coin was issued in 1992 to mark the EC Single Market and the UK presidency of the Council of Ministers – perhaps not the most popular of topics, which maybe was the reason so very few were pushed out into circulation. Half the circulation of the Kew Gardens 50pīut what few people realise is that there is an even rarer UK 50p piece that was issued in half the number of the Kew Gardens coin – just 109,000 coins. The result was a media storm and the inevitable overnight ramping of prices.
It was all because the Royal Mint announced that the Kew Gardens 50p coins is the UK’s most scarce circulation coin, with just 210,000 pieces ever been placed into circulation. Only 109,000 1992 EC 50p were issued into circulation – roughly half of the Kew Gardens 50p.
