London 2012: Olympic 50p coins 'kept as souvenirs'

The coins feature all Olympic and Paralympic sports and are produced by the Royal Mint in Llantrisant.

More London Olympics 50p coins are being hoarded by the public than any other commemorative coin circulated since decimalisation, says the Royal Mint.

The coins, produced in Llantrisant, feature Olympic and Paralympic sports.

Philip Mussell, director of Coin News magazine, said it was very unlikely the coins would be worth anything more than 50p after the Olympics.

"People are simply keeping them because they're nice things to keep," he said.

"After the Olympic Games are all over, are there going to be 800,000 people who want these things? I doubt it."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18742784

 

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I personally think the price will go up.

Pretty much everyone I know is collecting these, and there is a very limited number. 3 of the coins have mintages around 400,000 which is crazy low for a circulation coin.
There is also the fact that people are anticipating a rise in price that they are being hoarded. I personally have only ever seen 3 of these Olympic 50 Pences in my change, despite them being released in late 2010.

 

I purchased the full brilliant uncirculated set of 29 50-pence coins online, plus the 2009-dated public competition coin and the completer medallion. Our British numismatic friends should be having fun finding all their coins in circulation. I will also be looking forward to purchasing the sterling silver set, limited to just 30,000 each. The five-pound crowns in copper-nickel and silver are really nice, too!

 

When my wife saw this

she had to have one, too, so I had to get two.

 

as it is the first time the uk has issued a themed set of coins for circulation they have really grabbed the imagination of the public, many people are collecting them just to get the full collection from circulation. i bought the full set from the mint along with the collector medal purely as an aesthetic collection as part of my hobby. i don't think for one moment that the set will be worth mega bucks in a couple of years, but i like them and that is all that matters to me..........

 

Of course I had to get the Football 50p coin which explains the offside rule (and yes, I heard that the explanation is not perfect ... so what, the idea and the design are good). So I bought a few more that I found interesting; not the entire set though. And while I got two coin cards from swapping, most are "raw" pieces ...

Christian