Royal Mint releases three new dinosaur 50p coins that could be worth hundreds

The Royal Mint is releasing a new range of special 50p coins, featuring dinosaurs on the front.

There’ll be three different designs starring Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, and Hylaeosaurus on them, as part of a special collaboration with the Natural History Museum.

However, if you want one you’ll have to purchase it, as they won’t be turning up in your Greggs change anytime soon.

Royal Mint

The coins are for collection only, and they’ll set you back £10 a pop, or £20 for a coloured one, and you can’t spend them as actual money – although to be fair why would you want to spend it if you’re forking out that much?

The Megalosaurus coin is available to buy today, with the other two coming out in March and April respectively.

While the £10 coins will be available in an unlimited quantity, there’s only going to be 50,000 of the £20 coloured version released, making them very collectible.

Royal Mint

The coloured ones will be the first coins to feature augmented reality technology, and you can scan them for interesting facts and diagrams about the featured dino using the Royal Mint Activate app.

If you’re feeling really flashy, you can get a silver proof version of both the non-coloured and coloured versions for £60 and £65 respectively, or a gold version for a whopping £945.

While it’s unlikely the unlimited coins will increase that much in value, the limited edition coloured ones could end up worth a lot more than you paid for them.

Colin Bellamy of Coin Hunter told The Sun: “The coin will be the first from The Royal Mint to be made available as Brilliant Uncirculated colour.

“This base metal colour coin is much more affordable at £20 and the 50,000 limit could well sell out. This is the coin that could well increase in value, especially as it is the first coin in a set of three.”

Royal Mint

Rachel Hooper of Changechecker added: “We expect these coins to be very popular with collectors, especially considering this is the first time ever dinosaurs have featured on a UK coin.

“Looking back at the popularity of previous 50p series such as the 2012 Olympic 50ps and the Beatrix Potter coins from 2016, 2017 and 2018, we would expect demand for these new coins to be high as collectors look to add all three to their collection.”

Some of the Beatrix Potter designs ended up selling for hundreds – in 2018 50p coins featuring Peter Rabbit sold on eBay for as much £840.

You can get your hands on the coins here.