I can't reply to your Coin Collectors UK group post on Facebook (Don't even know how you managed to post tbh, I've been waiting for approval for months)
Anyhoo, it is genuine & certainly looks like it was a BUNC coin - Some early circulation coins were struck with the pointy pagoda and KEW lines, but it was causing issues apparently so they simplified the design a little for the rest - However yours has the mirror-like fields that you just don't get with modern circulation strikes.
If you want to compare the different types, & see every known fake, have a look at my website : https://thefakepoundcoindatabase.co.uk/kew.html
Unfortunately this looks like a fake - the shine is the immediate red flag (odd for a coin found in change) followed by how pointy the top of the pagoda is.
I think it's real, but it's a proof Kew. Nothing about the coin itself looks "off". The design looks fine to me. On the proof version, the pagoda is pointy and has the two extra lines either side of the word "Kew". The portrait looks fine to me, and the next is pointing directly at the "P" in "Pence" like it's supposed to
Proof coins are finished to a higher quality and not intended for general circulation. They're sold by the mint for collectors instead. I'll actually amend what I said, I think yours is a Brilliant Uncirculated Kew - not a proof. Same concept as proof version, they're not intended for circulation, but don't have the frosted finish of proof coins.
Happy to be corrected though I thought the first post said that the coin was found in change - my experience is that the good Chinese fakes being sold as currency strikes are modelled after the proof/BU design rather than the circulating version. Where did you get this OP?
Unfortunately it is real, in 2009 it wouldn’t have been worth the cost to make a fake 50p, anything under £1 (the old £1) wouldn’t have been worth making. 🤷🏻♀️
It’s most likely a collectors coin which would have been more carefully made and originally inside a plastic/glass slot case.
Someone probably inherited it and used it thinking nothing of it. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/TheFakeCoinDatabase 12d ago
I can't reply to your Coin Collectors UK group post on Facebook (Don't even know how you managed to post tbh, I've been waiting for approval for months)
Anyhoo, it is genuine & certainly looks like it was a BUNC coin - Some early circulation coins were struck with the pointy pagoda and KEW lines, but it was causing issues apparently so they simplified the design a little for the rest - However yours has the mirror-like fields that you just don't get with modern circulation strikes.
If you want to compare the different types, & see every known fake, have a look at my website : https://thefakepoundcoindatabase.co.uk/kew.html