Homeless man begging for change handed rare 50p coin worth hundreds of pounds on Exeter high street

Police officers decide to help beggar after moving him on

The special edition coins are sold by the Royal Mint for £55 (Mikael Buck / The Royal Mint)

A homeless man begging in Exeter has been given a special coin potentially worth hundreds of pounds.

The unidentified man was moved on by police after asking for change in the town centre.

But officers helped the man to identify an unusual coin he had been given by a member of the public.

Using a smartphone, the police were able to identify the coin in the man’s possession as a limited edition Beatrix Potter coin, the Express and Echo reported.

Released into circulation over Easter 2016 to mark the 150th anniversary of Ms Potter’s birth, the popular coins quickly fetched prices online worth many times their face value.

Coloured versions of the coins - which can only be bought privately – have been sold for hundreds of pounds online.

The coins depicting the Peter Rabbit character proved have proved especially popular.

Ms Potter's children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit was the first to feature the character and was an instant success after being picked up in 1902 by British children's publisher Frederick Warne and Co.

Peter Rabbit went on to appear in five more books by the author, who died in 1943.