£2 Coins
200 years since the birth of a monster…
This year celebrates the 200th birthday of one of the most infamous fictional characters in historic literature – Frankenstein’s Monster!
Frankenstein. Credit: pixabay.com
With film adaptations across various genres, from the quasi-rock opera The Rocky Horror Picture Show to sci-fi classics like Prometheus, the tale of the dysfunctional Victor Frankenstein and his mad scientific invention is known by all of us in some shape or form.
In the gothic tale – written by Mary Shelley – an obsessed Victor Frankenstein attempts to bring a corpse back to life in his laboratory through mad methods of chemistry, alchemy and a ‘flash’ of electricity.
To celebrate this important literary bi-centenary The Royal Mint has released a commemorative £2. The reverse features the word ‘Frankenstein’ in electric gothic font, along with ‘Bicentenary of Mary Shelley’s The Modern Prometheus’ written around the edge.
The edge inscription reads ‘A spark of being’, the words of Dr Victor Frankenstein when he creates ‘creature’.
We haven’t seen anything quite like this in a coin design before and since the design was revealed at the start of the year there has been a huge response from excited collectors looking to get their hands on this unusual coin.
What do you think of this new £2 coin? Let us know in the comments below!
Commemorate 200 years of Mary Shelley’s exceptional novel with the ‘Frankenstein’ BU £2
This striking £2 coin is now available to add to your collection in Brilliant Uncirculated quality.
Collectors interest is expected to be ‘monstrous’, so click here to order yours now >>>
How rare is my £2 and how much is it worth?
Since the first very bi-metallic £2 coins were released back in 1998, there have been over 40 UK £2 coins in circulation! Many of these coins commemorate key moments in Britain’s history and heritage.
But with so many in circulation, how can you tell which are the ones to look for?
Luckily for you, we’ve done the hard work and compiled a number of resources to help you determine how rare your £2 coin is and how much it might be worth.
Mintages
A key tool for working out how rare your coin might be is our £2 mintage chart. Generally speaking, the lower the mintage, the rarer the coin and the harder it will be to find in circulation.
Here are the most up to date mintage charts for UK £2 coins in circulation, with the UK’s rarest circulation £2, the 2002 Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland sat in top spot with the lowest mintage figures of just 485,500.
Click here to read more about the 50p mintage figures >>
UK £2 mintage figures as of September 2023.
eBay Tracker
Our eBay Tracker, which is updated every 6 months, follows the secondary market selling price of the top 11 UK coins and banknotes. The eBay Tracker takes the last 9 sold prices achieved on eBay and gives you the median price achieved. By taking the median, rather than an average, we avoid skewing created by one or two excessive prices achieved.
Click here to read our latest eBay Tracker update >>
If your coin doesn’t appear on the tracker, you can also use our 6 point guide to help determine the realistic value of your coin.
Scarcity Index
To give you a complete picture of how your coin compares to other £2 coins in circulation, we have combined the mintage information with two other key pieces of information to provide the Change Checker Scarcity Index:
- How many of each design are listed as “collected” by Change Checkers, indicating the relative ease of finding a particular coin.
- The number of times a design has been requested as a swap over the previous 3 months, showing the current level of collector demand.
Here’s our most recent Scarcity Index for £2 coins, with yet again the Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland coming in on top as the most scarce £2. Where does your £2 rank on the Scarcity Index?
Hopefully these tools will enable you to get a more realistic picture of how rare your £2 is and how much it might be worth. Of course, these figures will change in time as the latest £2 coins are released into circulation, so make sure you stay up to date with all our latest coin news and information.
Check out the Change Checker Web App
If you’re interested in coin collecting, our Change Checker web app is completely free to use and allows users to:
– Find and identify the coins in their pocket
– Collect and track the coins they have
– Swap their spare coins with other Change Checkers
Sign up today at: www.changechecker.org/app
2018’s most popular RAF £2 revealed!
The votes are in and you have chosen your favourite 2018 RAF £2 coin!
Following the reveal of the five brand new £2 coins issued by The Royal Mint this year to commemorate the Centenary of the Royal Air Force, we asked Change Checkers to vote for their favourite design on our previous blog introducing the new coins
Each stunning design features an iconic RAF aircraft, from the modern F35 Lightning to the famous Spitfire, with the first coin in the series depicting the badge of the RAF to celebrate the Royal Air Force as a whole.
Our poll has now closed, and I do have to say that the results were very close! But we can now reveal that the most popular RAF £2 coin design has been chosen and first place goes to the magnificent Sea King, receiving just over 28% of your votes.
1. Sea King
This is the fourth coin in the RAF series and although it’s available to pre-order now, it will be officially released in August for those of you looking to add the Sea King £2 to your collection.
Known as the ‘angel on our shoulders’, the Sea King helicopter acted exclusively in a search and rescue role from 1978, with the final mission taking place on the 4th of October 2015.
In 2012, Prince William himself flew a Sea King during a training exercise which ended in a rescue mission when two girls were swept out to sea in a riptide.
2. Spitfire
Coming in a very close second is one of the most famous planes ever built, the Supermarine Spitfire.
This is the second coin in the series and is available now to add to your collection. The coin beautifully depicts the iconic image of the Spitfire, designed by Reginald Mitchell.
First flying in 1936, this short range interceptor aircraft was known as the backbone of the RAF Fighter Command and was much loved amongst its pilots.
3. Vulcan
In third place is the legendary Vulcan bomber, the third coin in the RAF series, which is also available now to add to your collection.
This coin captures the instantly recognisable delta wing of the awesome Vulcan in flight, an exhilarating sight to behold.
Unmatched by any other bomber from the jet-age, this aircraft truly was the epitome of power during its service from 1956 until 1984.
4. Badge
Voted in fourth place is the RAF badge coin, the first coin in the series which has been available to order since the start of the year.
Royal Mint designer, Rhys Morgan created this coin based upon the badge which was originally used at the first Air Council meeting in 1918 and then registered in the 1920s with the Royal College of Arms.
Capturing the spirit of the RAF as a whole, this design symbolises the RAF’s resilience over the past century.
5. Lightning F35
Last, but by no means least, is the Lightning or F35 fighter jet, the fifth coin in the series. This coin can be pre-ordered now and will be officially released in September.
The F35 is the RAF’s newest aircraft which operates alongside the Typhoon, creating a potent mix of stealth and power.
Reviving Britain’s sea-bourne operations, these supersonic planes are set to be in service by December this year.
Overall, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who voted in our poll and helped us determine the most popular RAF £2 coin.
I think the design of the Sea King £2 perfectly captures the dedication of the RAF and this superb machine to ensure the safety of the people of the UK, and perhaps this is the reason why it has been voted as your favourite.
Pre order 2018’s most popular RAF £2 coin!
You can now pre-order the RAF Sea King £2 in certified Brilliant Uncirculated quality, protectively encapsulated to preserve its quality for generations to come.