The rare Kew Gardens 50p coin is hugely popular, and consequently, there are many fakes in circulation. Here’s how to tell whether you have the real deal.

The Kew Gardens 50p is one of the best-known rare coins around.

With a sale of a Kew Gardens 50p for £91 on eBay in May (read here for why sales rather than listings are important), it’s no wonder collectors love this coin.

Plus, because it was only produced in 2009, it’s possible that you have one in your wallet.

Unfortunately, although 210,000 of these coins were originally issued, there’s a large number of fakes out there in circulation.

We’ve teamed up with the Fake Pound Coin Database to tell the fakes from the real deal.

Welcome to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Unlock the amazing power of plants and fungi. Visit our world-leading botanic gardens and discover our science and conservation work. Coronavirus has created a significant financial challenge that threatens our future. We need your help to preserve our collections and continue our scientific research. By far, the rarest and most desirable 50p in circulation is the Kew Gardens coin. Originally minted in 2009, people didn’t realise how scarce this coin was until circulation figures were revealed years later. Only 210,000 were minted, in contrast to the millions that are minted for most designs. The Kew Gardens 50p Design. On its obverse, the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p piece bears the fourth definitive UK coin portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Designed by sculptor, Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS, this portrait was introduced in 1998. The engraving displays a more mature portrait of the Queen.

If you think you’ve got another rare 50p coin or a rare £1 coin, click on the links to find out more.

The real deal

Firstly, (re)acquaint yourself with what a genuine Kew Gardens coin looks like:

The fakes

Spotting a fake is tricky because there’s a wide variety of them.

Below are just a few of the examples listed by the Fake Pound Coin Database, with notes below on why they’re fakes.

The frosted portrait and design is a giveaway that this is a fake – however, there are also design elements in the pagoda and Queen’s head (explained below).

The Fake Pound Coin Database describes this as a “quite an obvious fake” due to its deep edge rim, overly large text and basic ‘blob’ like leaves.

The slightly gold colour of this coin reveals it to be a fake.

Spotting a fake: the pagoda

Fakes contain a number of giveaways when you look at the design of the pagoda on the tails side.

At the top of the pagoda, an overly pointy roof can be a sign of a fake – refer back to the genuine Kew Gardens 50p above to compare.

Kew Gardens 50p For Sale

At the base of the pagoda, there shouldn’t usually be any lines around the word ‘Kew’ - although a few real coins still carry these lines.

Spotting a fake: the Queen

Start with the Queen’s neckline.

Kew Gardens London

A genuine Kew Gardens 50p has the right base of the neck pointing towards the P in PENCE. Fakes sometimes get this wrong.

Kew Gardens 50p Coin

Then look at the designers’ initials, ‘the IRB’. If you see the word ‘COPY’ beside the initials, or if the IRB is too big, you are looking at a fake.

50p Coins Worth

If it turns out you have a fake, then remember it’s illegal to use it or sell it on; unfortunately, there’s very little you can do about fakes, which is why it’s so important to check coins first.