£2 Coins
Do you own the rarest UK coins in circulation?
Earlier this year I made some charts about Britain’s rarest circulating coins. They proved really popular on our Facebook page, so I thought I’d bring them all together for you here in one blog post.
How many of these rare coins do you have in your collection?
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 to date!
The rarest £1 coin is the 2011 Edinburgh design. Could it be worth something one day?
Olympic 50ps have long been a favourite amongst collectors, but did you know there are only 1,125,500 Football fifty pence pieces? It’s definitely the rare one to look out for!
Last but definitely not least, the Kew Gardens 50p steals the show. Just 210,000 were struck and they made headlines earlier in the year when a handful reached a valuation of over £100 on eBay – surely making them some of Britain’s most valuable circulating coins (for now at least!)
So remember to keep checking your change – you just might own one of the UK’s rarest coins!
If you’ve found some of the coins mentioned in these charts, why not list them in your online collection at www.changechecker.org – you can even swap with your fellow Change Checkers to complete your collection!
A £2 coin to commemorate the event which changed the world
There are few more sombre commemorative coins in circulation than the 2007 £2 coin. Issued to mark the 200th Anniversary of the act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, it is one of the most surprising and thought provoking coins you are likely to find in your change.
The UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is marked in August each year as a day to reflect on an unfortunate and shameful passage of history which should never be repeated, and also a be thankful for the better times we live in today.
It’s sometimes difficult to imagine a barbaric world where people were sold into slavery, but in the 17th and 18th centuries it was an accepted and unquestioned part of Britain’s growing imperial and naval supremacy.
However, there were those who objected to the whole slavery enterprise. Groups of Quakers began campaigning tirelessly in the late 18th century and won the support of an MP named William Wilberforce. Through mass petitioning and increasing national support for their cause, he was able to exert substantial pressure on the government.
As a result, Parliament passed the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807 and significantly altered the progress and development of the transatlantic slave system. Although it did not abolish slavery itself, it prohibited trafficking and was a major step towards the total abolition of slavery across the British Empire in 1833.
Look out for this £2 in your change, and it may well make you stop and think for a moment about William Wilberforce and the powerful change for good he made in the pre-Victorian era.
The 2007 £2 Coin:
An act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade
The Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was one of the most momentous Acts of Parliament in history and to celebrate its bicentenary in 2007, this commemorative ‘Abolition of Slavery’ £2 was issued. The reverse features a striking and imaginative design by David Gentleman with the ‘0’ of the date 1807 depicted as a broken chain link.
You can find this coin and every other commemorative coin in circulation on the Change Checker App.
How the Commonwealth Games started £2 Coin Collecting
In 2014 the Royal Mint struck a new circulating coin for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. But I can still remember back to the summer of 1986…
My father worked for a bank. He came home one evening with half a dozen coins in his hands. “I bet you don’t know what these are…”, he said. “They’re the new £2 coin. They’ve been released to celebrate the Commonwealth Games.”
The Royal Mint struck the circulation Commonwealth Games 50p on 25 May 2014
A new denomination for the UK
This was something genuinely new. The only “commemorative” coin in circulation was that slightly odd “hands” 50 pence that no-one really knew much about and there had only been two commemorative crowns issued in the last 20 years – both for Royal events.
The 1996 Commonwealth Games £2 coin changed the face of UK commemorative coins.
This was a brand new denomination and it commemorated a proper non-royal national event that really engaged the nation. Although the 1986 Commonwealth Game coin was largely kept by collectors and never really entered mass circulation, it marked a significant change in the UK’s commemorative coin issuing strategy.
Six more single-coloured commemorative £2 coins were struck over the next 10 years before the introduction of the fully circulating £2 denomination, which has now seen 50 different designs issued.
Of course, amongst those 50 coins are four coins from 2002 – again issued to celebrate the Commonwealth Games – this time held in Manchester. At first glance, you might struggle to spot the difference between them. They all feature the same running athlete trailing a banner behind. But each has a different cameo, representing each of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. Find out how to tell these coins apart here >>
Officially the UK’s rarest £2 coin
They are some of the scarcest £2 coins now in circulation, with even the largest mintage (Scotland) set at just 771,750 – just 17% of the first ever commemorative bimetallic £2 coin, which was issued for the Rugby World Cup in 1999.
The 2002 Commonwealth Games £2 coins are some of the rarest ever issued. Their mintage figures are shown below each design.
But the coin you really need to be looking out for is the Northern Ireland £2. Just 485,000 coins were ever struck making it officially the UK’s rarest £2 coin.
75% disappear from circulation
Of course, the 2014 Commonwealth Games coin is a 50p, rather than the previous £2 coins. But with the Royal Mint estimating that as many as 75% of all Olympic 50ps being kept by collectors, it’s definitely worth scouring your change for.
Own the Commonwealth Games coin that started £2 collecting
This coin is no longer in circulation, but we’re giving you the chance to own the UK 1986 Commonwealth Games £2 for your collection.