Coins and values
Rarity scores and coin values
What the score out of 10 means, where values come from, and why the coin in your change is usually worth 50p.
Published 22 September 2026 · Last updated 25 September 2026
The rarity score
A coin with a recorded mintage carries a rarity score from 1 to 10, shown on its coin page and on its card in Browse. It is worked out from how many were struck, ranked against every other coin in the catalogue, then adjusted for how old the coin is and for its recorded price. A coin with no recorded mintage is not rated on its page.
A low mintage on its own does not make a coin valuable — people have to want it too. The price adjustment is why two coins with similar mintages can score differently. How we value coins sets out the rule in full.
A score of 10 is genuinely rare. Most coins that turn up in change score in the low numbers, and that is normal — it is also why the £5 add-on rule exists on the marketplace.
Where values come from
The value on a coin page is an estimate for guidance, not a sale price, not what a shop would pay you, and not face value. The line under it says which of the five kinds of figure below it is, and when it was set.
Condition changes the number substantially, which is why each version is catalogued separately. Record the right one when you add a coin you own, or your collection total will not mean much.
The coin values guide goes further into what moves a price — mintage, condition, metal content and demand — and rare 50p coins covers the ones worth checking your change for.
- Numista catalogue — an estimate from Numista, the collectors' online catalogue, dated the day we asked for it.
- Numista type value — Numista's estimate for another issue of the same design (another year, or another strike of it); this one has not been priced on its own.
- Melt value — what the silver, gold or platinum in the coin is worth at the metal price shown, used when it is higher than the catalogue figure or the only figure there is.
- Price-guide figure — entered from a UK collector price guide in June or July 2025, and not updated since.
- Collector submission — a figure a collector sent with a coin, accepted by an administrator.
- Values are estimates for guidance, not offers or valuations. What a coin sells for on the day depends on condition, timing and who is looking. How we value coins explains each kind of figure, what the date means and how to report a wrong one.
Using a value to set a price
If you are listing a coin for sale, the catalogue value is a starting point rather than an answer — condition and photographs move a real sale price more than the estimate does.
Work out what you will actually receive before you set a number: the seller commission is 6%, and a coin priced under £5 sells as an add-on rather than on its own.