2018 Paddington at the Station 50p
The 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p is a circulating 50p with 5 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2018
- Circulation mintage
- 5,001,000
- Value band
- Face value
- Designer
- David Knapton
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p worth?
5 million were made, so the 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p is easy to find. A circulated one is worth face value; collectors pay a little more only for uncirculated coins and coins still in their original Royal Mint pack.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with no scratches or contact marks
- Original Royal Mint pack or presentation folder
- A genuine mint error, confirmed by an expert
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p rare?
- No. 5 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p coins were made?
- 5,001,000 were struck for circulation.
- Who designed the 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p?
- The design is credited to David Knapton.
- What is the 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p made of?
- Cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel). It weighs 8.0 g and measures 27.3 mm, with a seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) shape.
- Is the 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 27.3 mm 50p, including commemoratives, is legal tender in the UK.
Why the 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p was made
A Bear Called Paddington was published in October 1958. It opens with Mr. and Mrs. Brown finding a small bear sitting on a suitcase at Paddington Station in London, wearing a label that reads "Please look after this bear. Thank you." He has stowed away from darkest Peru with a jar of marmalade. The Browns take him home and name him after the station. Michael Bond's gentle, funny stories went on to sell in huge numbers around the world and were translated into many languages.
The Royal Mint marked the book's 60th anniversary in 2018 with this coin, one of two Paddington 50ps released that year. It makes sense that the station where the story begins was chosen for the anniversary piece. Its companion shows Paddington at Buckingham Palace, while two more landmark coins followed in 2019. The Station coin had a circulation mintage of 5,001,000, the lowest of the four Paddington 50ps. It arrived the year after Michael Bond's death in 2017, so for many readers it also felt like a tribute to the author who had written about the bear for nearly 60 years.
How to recognize it
David Knapton shows Paddington sitting inside Paddington Station, the place where the Browns first meet him. It is the only coin in the four-coin Paddington set that shows him indoors, which is the quickest way to identify it. The Palace coin has the palace front and a flag, the Tower coin has a marmalade sandwich and the St Paul's coin has the cathedral dome. The year on it is 2018. Turn it over for Jody Clark's portrait of the Queen. It is the usual 27.3 mm seven-sided cupronickel coin, struck without color for circulation, so any painted version has been altered privately.
The other side carries Jody Clark's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, introduced in 2015 and the last of her reign.
2018 Paddington at the Station 50p by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p ranks 45th lowest of 76 circulating 50p coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 1998 NHS 50p (5 million); the next more common is the 1998 EU Presidency 50p (5.04 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1973 EEC Hands 50p with 89.8 million, about 18 times as many. The scarcest is the 1992 Single Market 50p with 109,000, 46 times fewer than this one.
It shared 2018 with 6 other circulating 50p designs: the Flopsy Bunny (1.4 million), the Peter Rabbit (1.4 million), the Mrs Tittlemouse (1.7 million), the The Tailor of Gloucester (3.9 million), the Paddington at the Palace (5.9 million) and the Representation of the People Act (9 million). 4 of them had a smaller run.
Within the circulating Paddington 50p coins, it ranks 1st scarcest.
What to check on your 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p
- Confirm the design. The reverse should match the Paddington at the Station described above and carry the date 2018; similar designs from other years are a common mix-up.
- Weigh it if you can: a genuine 27.3 mm 50p weighs 8.0 g. Copies are often light, slightly soft in detail or the wrong color.
- Ignore painted or colored versions sold online as special editions. Color added after the coin left the Mint does not make it a Royal Mint issue and does not add collector value.
- Look at the surfaces under a bright light. Coins straight from a pack have unbroken luster; change-worn coins show scuffs on the high points of the portrait and design.
At 5,001,000 the Station coin is the scarcest of the four Paddington 50ps, though only by a modest margin over the Palace coin. It is still common enough to find in change, so a circulated example is a face value coin. Because it is the lowest of the set, some people search for it harder than the others. A coin with a crisp outline of Paddington and clear background detail is the one to keep. The Royal Mint also sold it in brilliant uncirculated packs. Those coins have a bright, unmarked finish that circulated coins lose quickly.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 50 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2018 |
| Circulation mintage | 5,001,000 |
| Composition | Cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel) |
| Weight | 8.0 g |
| Diameter | 27.3 mm |
| Shape | Seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) |
| Edge | Plain |
| Designer | David Knapton |
| Portrait | Clark |
Other 2018 50p coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 Representation of the People Act 50p | 9,000,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Paddington at the Palace 50p | 5,901,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p | 3,900,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Mrs Tittlemouse 50p | 1,700,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Flopsy Bunny 50p | 1,400,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Peter Rabbit 50p | 1,400,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Snowman 50p | Collector issue | Small premium |
Frequently asked questions
Which Paddington 50p is the rarest?
Paddington at the Station has the lowest circulation mintage of the four, with 5,001,000 struck in 2018. The Palace coin had 5,901,000 and the two 2019 coins had 9,001,000 each. None of them is truly rare.
Why was the Paddington at the Station 50p made?
It marks 60 years since Michael Bond's first Paddington book was published in 1958. The station setting recalls the opening of that story, where the Brown family find the bear at Paddington Station with a label round his neck.
Mintage figures: Fifty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.