The rarest 10p coins in circulation - and how much they could be worth

Coin collecting is a popular hobby that could earn you a small fortune as fellow collectors pay a pretty penny to get their hands on some of the rarest designs

Coin collectors could be sitting on a small fortune as fellow enthusiasts pay a pretty penny to get their hands on some of the rarest designs in circulation.

While 50p coins are often the most talked about when it comes to collecting, it's not just the likes of the famous Kew Gardens and Atlantic Salmon designs that you should be looking out for in your change. The latest research by experts at Change Checker has also named the most sought-after 10p coins out there that many collectors are desperate to find.

Change Checker's Scarcity Index looks at data from the site's Swap Centre, which is used by collectors to swap coins with others, combined with each coin's mintage figure - in other words, how many were released into circulation. And the most recent index showed that several 10ps have moved positions on the index, with a new design taking the top spot as the number one most collectable of its denomination.

The list of the rarest 10p coins consists exclusively of the 'A-Z' series issued by the Royal Mint in 2018, made up of 26 different designs for each letter of the alphabet with each one representing something quintessentially British. The collection goes from A for Angel of the North all the way to Z for a zebra crossing, and are considered among the hardest commemorative coins to find in circulation due to their popularity with collectors.

Taking the number one spot as the most sought-after 10p is the design bearing a robin for the letter R in the series, with the Z for zebra crossing in second place, while the Y for Yeoman Warder, another name for the Beefeaters responsible for guarding the Tower of London, is in third. However, Change Checker advises that all 10ps in the A-Z series are highly desirable, and could be worth dozens of times their value.

Research from Change Checker back in 2021 found that the Robin design sold for an average of £6.99 on eBay, while the B for Bond 10p averaged at £6.25, and collectors were willing to pay £4.20 on average for the L for Loch Ness Monster design. This means they could be worth considerably more now as collectors getting hold of them makes them rarer with each passing year.

The experts at Change Checker said: "Collectors will agree that the A-Z 10ps are some of the hardest commemorative coins to come across in circulation – that's not surprising when you consider a maximum of just 304,000 of each A-Z 10p design entered circulation across 2018 and 2019 and it's thought that a large percentage of these 10ps have been snapped up by collectors."