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McDonald's has marked the 50th anniversary of the Big Mac by launching its own MacCoin burger currency.

The MacCoin will be handed out to every customer who orders one of the iconic burgers in any of their branches across the globe.

The coins, embellished with images of the burger and the number 50, can be exchanged for another free burger.

It's thought the Big Mac currency will be on offer for the rest of 2018, with the coins expected to be launched in on Thursday - but it's not all good news.

Unfortunately, the offer doesn't stretch to the UK, so any Big Mac loving Brits will have to travel a little further afield for their free meal.

McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook revealed Thursday as the launch day to fall on what would have been the 100th birthday of Jim Delligatti, a McDonald’s franchisee in western Pennsylvania who invented the Big Mac, according to USA Today .

(Image: Bloomberg)

The Big Mac has become an iconic symbol of the fast food giant - and even has it's own museum.

The Big Mac Museum Restaurant in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, pays tribute to the burger with a huge 14ft tall replica and a life size gold statue of its founder Jim Delligatti.

According to the chain, an incredible 1.3 billion Big Macs were sold last year last year.

(Image: Twitter/@McDonalds)

While the MacCoin marks the chain's first currency launch, McDonald's already has ties to the global financial market.

The Big Mac Index was invented by The Economist in 1986 and is used as an informal guide to comparing currencies.

The Economist describe the index as a "lighthearted guide to whether currencies are at their "correct" level.