How rare is my coin? The Complete Change Checker Guide to UK Coin mintages
Have I just found a rare coin? It’s a question which collectors ask daily, and to help answer it, we’ve put together these charts listing each coin in order of its rarity.
The Northern Ireland 2002 Commonwealth Games is the rarest £2 coin currently in circulation – in fact the four designs in the 2002 Commonwealth Games series occupy the top ten list. There were only 485,500 Northern Ireland 2002 Commonwealth Games £2 coins minted, that’s just 0.1% of all the £2 coins ever struck!
Others to look out for include the 2015 Navy £2 and the 2015 Britannia £2, both coins have recently been issued into circulation and share joint third place on our graph.
Themes have followed a similar pattern over the years with the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom being represented in cycles. The rarest One Pound coin currently in circulation is the Edinburgh £1 which was part of the series depicting the capital cities of the UK.
The Edinburgh design is the only £1 coin with a mintage below 1 million and by way of comparison, over 443 million Royal Arms shield £1 coins were issued in 1983. The 2011 Cardiff £1 and the 2010 London £1 follow closely behind, so all very sought after £1 coins to have.
Another coin to look out for is The Royal Arms £1. Although this is a common design which is regularly ignored, make sure to look out for one with a 2008 date – that’s actually the fourth rarest £1 coin.
The rarest coin in circulation, of any denomination, is the Kew Gardens 50p. the Kew Gardens 50p has been valued at up to £50 on online market place eBay. Its status as the most scarce coin has been well publicised, and as a result, many are hoarded by collectors. This chart illustrates just how rare it is compared with other Fifty Pence designs.
The Olympic Fifty Pence series is very popular with Change Checkers, but in terms of rarity, there really isn’t much separating the top 10 designs. The Football ‘Offside Rule’ 50p was certainly one of the most talked about designs, and it also narrowly ranks as the scarcest.
So, keep hold of your coins. You never know what they might be worth in the future! And remember you can Find, Collect and Swap all your coins for FREE with the Change Checker App: www.changechecker.org
Change Checkers are not ready to say farewell to the British Penny…
Last week, we asked Change Checkers if it was time to scrap the British penny.
The penny has been in existence for 1,200 years!
The majority of you said no!
Although it’s fair to say that pennies are rarely used to buy anything anymore, it looks like the sentimental value of the penny is important to us Brits.
53% of Change Checker want to keep the penny.
53% of Change Checkers are in favour of keeping the penny and there are a host of economic, pragmatic, charitable and nostalgic reasons in defence of the penny.
In 1992, all 1p and 2p coins intended for circulation changed from bronze to copper plated steel as a result of the rising price of base metals. Although the Royal Mint does not disclose how much it costs to produce pennies, it is thought that it costs significantly less than face value to produce. The changes to the metal content in 1992 has been key to the future of the penny and allowed it to live on.
Coins are tangible and people do enjoy using them. Most transactions below £10 are still done in cash and it’s likely that it will be a while before it is common for small transactions to be done digitally.
Britain’s traditions run deep and the 1 penny coin is an expression of this tradition. It will be a very sad day if and when they British penny ceases to exist.
This £5 banknote just sold for £4,150!
One of the new polymer £5 banknotes featuring Winston Churchill recently sold for a whopping £4,150 at a Bank of England charity auction on Monday 3rd October.
The banknote was only expected to fetch £800-£1200 at the charity event but it actually went for 830 times its face value!
This banknote sold for an extraordinary £4,150 at the charity auction.
Just last month we reported that banknotes with the serial number beginning with AA01 were selling online for hundreds of pounds. The banknotes which were released into circulation on September 13th are still catching the public’s attention with collectors looking to keep hold of the notes while they are still in good condition.
The first batch of banknotes from the presses carry a serial number starting AA01, followed by a six-digit number. There are 999,999 new fivers with the AA01 prefix and these are the ones selling for vast sums.
Winston Churchill features on the new Polymer £5 Banknotes
The £5 note was lot one at the event held in London and carried the serial number AA01 000017, making it the lowest available to the public according to auctioneers Spink.
A lot of bids came through online and it is thought that a lot of interest in these banknotes came from across the pond because Churchill was a well-known face over in the US.
The Bank of England Charity event raised a total of £203,820 with the money going to three worthy charities which were chosen by staff at the Bank of England.
A total of 601 banknotes were up for sale at the event and every banknote sold well over its estimate sale price.