Paddington Bear 50p Coin

4/11/20224/11/2022

Paddington at the Palace 50p Coin Details. Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the classic book, A Bear Called Paddington this is the second coin in the four-coin Paddington Bear coins set. Expect to pay around £10 for a carded Paddington at the Palace 50p BUNC coin in Royal Mint packaging. The Silver Proof coins are selling for around £35 on. Coin Information: To celebrate the iconic 60th anniversary of Paddington Bear’s first appearance in 1958 in Michael Bond’s novel “A Bear Called Paddington”, The Royal Mint issued potentially the most sought-after 50p ever. Paddington Bear 50p Coin. Dispatched with Royal Mail 2nd Class Letter.

Paddington 50p Coins
Paddington Bear 50p Ebay
Paddington Bear 50p Coin Ebay

Peru's most famous bear is about to start appearing in people's pockets.

Two new 50p coins to be released by the Royal Mint will show Paddington Bear visiting the Tower of London and St Paul's Cathedral.

Two other coins were released in 2018 to celebrate the bear's 60th birthday, showing Paddington visiting the train station he is named after, as well as with the guards outside Buckingham Palace.

The coins will begin entering general circulation in the next few weeks, but fans can get their hands on the 50p pieces as they begin to fill the tills at the Royal Mint Experience in Llantrisant, South Wales.

The Royal Mint is also selling 'mint condition' editions of the coins which can be purchased for £10 each.

The British decimal fifty pence (50p) coin – often informally pronounced fifty pee – is a unit of currency equalling one half of a pound sterling.It is a seven-sided coin formed as an equilateral-curve heptagon, or Reuleaux polygon, a curve of constant width, meaning that the diameter is constant across any bisection. Britain’s favourite bear, Paddington is about to get two brand new Paddington Bear 50p coins with his image on it. So just like Mr. Brown chanced upon the marmalade lover unexpectedly, you can too. The new Paddington Bear 50p coins will have Paddington in front of the St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London.

Nicola Howell, director of consumer coin at the Royal Mint, said: 'Following the huge popularity of the coins featuring the much-loved bear last year, we thought it was only right that Paddington continued his adventures around London on UK coinage.

'Paddington Bear is a massive part of British popular culture and is a favourite amongst fans of all ages, who we're sure will be looking out for him in their change, the first of which will go into tills in the Royal Mint Experience.'

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Famous for his love of marmalade sandwiches, Paddington first appeared in a book published by then-Blue Peter cameraman Michael Bond, who found a bear alone on a shelf in Selfridges on Christmas Eve in 1956.

'I took it home as a present for my wife Brenda and named it Paddington as we were living near Paddington Station at the time,' the author says on Paddington's website.

'I wrote some stories about the bear, more for fun than with the idea of having them published. After ten days I found that I had a book on my hands.'

In the books, Paddington is named after the train station in London, where he was eventually found after being sent to the UK from Peru by his aunt Lucy.

Since then, Paddington has become a British cultural landmark, appearing in books, TV shows and, most recently, two critically acclaimed feature films starring Ben Whishaw.

Paddington Bear was created by British author Michael Bond with the first book published in 1958. Fifty years later, in 2018, The Royal Mint celebrated the first six decades of the loveable character with two 50p coins, and two more 50p coins followed in 2019:

2018 - Paddington at Buckingham Palace 50p
2018 - Paddington at the Station 50p
2019 - Paddington at the Tower of London
2019 - Paddington at St Paul's

The first two Paddington 50p coins were issued on 18 June 2018 and The Royal Mint has now revealed the number of coins issued into general circulation during that year.

The Paddington at Buckingham Palace 50p was issued in the following formats:

Circulation coins (mintage of 5,001,000)
Brilliant Uncirculated
Silver Proof (limited to 60,000)

The Paddington at the Station 50p was issued in the following formats:

Circulation coins (mintage of 5,901,000)
Brilliant Uncirculated
Silver Proof (limited to 60,000)

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So how rare are the 2018 Paddington Bear 50p coins?

The circulation coins are not very rare due to the mintage figure of over 5 million. In comparison, only 210,000 copies of the highly collectable 2009 Kew Gardens 50p coins were minted.

In short, the Paddington Bear 50p coins you find in your change are worth about… 50p. But why not put them aside and add them to your 50p collection?

The Brilliant Uncirculated coins are being sold by The Royal Mint for £10, and the Silver Proof has a retail price of £60.

2019 Paddington Bear 50p coins

In 2019, two further Paddington Bear 50p coins were issued, this time showing him outside the Tower of London and St Paul's Cathedral, respectively. Once again, the coins are available in similar formats:

The Paddington at the Tower 50p was issued in the following formats:

Circulation coins (mintage not yet known)
Brilliant Uncirculated (£10 from The Royal Mint)
Silver Proof (limited to 25,000, retails for £65)

The Paddington at St Paul's 50p was issued in the following formats:

Circulation coins (mintage not yet known)
Brilliant Uncirculated (£12.99 from ChangeChecker)
Silver Proof (limited to 60,000, £65)
Gold Proof (limited to 600 copies, and selling for £945)

These coins are no longer available at The Royal Mint but Change Checker stock a range of Paddington 50p products in Brilliant Uncirculated quality which you can secure for your collection here >>

So why were some Paddington coins sold for thousands on eBay?

Back in 2018, a small number of the Paddington Bear 50p coins were issued early, giving collectors the chance to get their hands on the pieces before they were officially released.

Some of these first coins were put up for sale on eBay attracting interest from the national newspapers, who often report on sales of 50p coins.

One coin even had a price of £16,000… but don't believe the hype! The coin will not have sold for this much, and as soon as the coins were released these early coins lost any additional value they may have had.

It's often the case that newspapers report on modern coins selling for hundreds or thousands on eBay, but there's usually an explanation that means it's more a case of sellers 'trying their luck' rather than any bonafide rarity. As ever, buyer beware, know the facts before you spend your money.

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