General info
Not everybody is happy with Jane Austen’s ‘makeover’ on the new £10 note
2017 marks 200 years since the death of Jane Austen– one of the best-loved English novelists of all time. And to celebrate such an inspirational female figure, both The Royal Mint and the Bank of England have chosen to honour her on a brand new coin and bank note this year.
In fact, this is the first time ever that someone has featured on a circulation coin and banknote at the same time– other than the reigning monarch.
But, all is not well. In an era where airbrushing celebrity photos is par for the course it is perhaps surprising that there has been such uproar regarding Jane Austen’s portrait on the new £10 note.
A portrait of Jane Austen, considered a genuine likeness, compared to her portrait on the new £10 note.
However, many people are upset that she appears to have had the Photoshop treatment; altering her real image to one ‘better suited’ to this modern age. With some even going as far to say she has been made into a Disney princess. Although the difference is not drastic, it is clear that a few minor tweaks have been made.
It seems as though it is not a good idea to mess with the appearance of such a well loved English icon.
We’d certainly be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter, let us know by answering our poll.
[polldaddy poll=9753530]
UPDATE: How rare is my coin? The complete Change Checker guide to UK coin mintages
In 2016, we took a look at the mintage figures of all 50p, £1 and £2 coins that have been released. As always, ‘The Change Checker guide to UK coin mintages’ is THE place to check how rare your coins are! Here are the charts listing each coin in order of its rarity.
The Kew Gardens 50p coin remains top of the chart and doesn’t look as though it’ll be shifted any time soon!
Due to the high number of commemorative designs, no definitive design 50p coins were struck for circulation in 2016. Of those commemorative designs, the Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit 50p has the highest mintage with 9.6 million pieces. However, some collectors may struggle to complete their Beatrix Potter set as it’s been revealed that only 2.1 million Jemima Puddle-Duck 50p coins were struck, making it the second most scarce commemorative 50p design (excluding the Olympic 50p series)! Squirrel Nutkin has also made it into the top 10 rare 50ps with a mintage of 5 million.
2016 was the first year since 1983 that no round £1 coins were struck for circulation due to the release of the new 12-sided £1 coin, as a result, this chart is now set in stone and the 2011 Edinburgh coin will remain the target for all round £1 coin collectors. But they’ll have to act quickly – along with the other round £1 coins it will disappear from circulation forever on 15th October.
The 2002 Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland £2 still remains the only £2 coin to have a mintage of less that 500,000, placing it firmly at the top of the chart.
From the 2016 designs, the First World War Army £2 coin has a very high mintage figure with over 9.5million pieces being struck, making it the second most common commemorative £2 coin ever.
Interestingly, the three Shakespeare £2 coins, ‘Comedies‘, ‘Histories‘ and ‘Tragedies‘ each have a different mintage figure. Over 1.3 million fewer ‘Comedies’ coins were struck than ‘tragedies’, likely having an impact on collectability in the future.
You’ll notice that the Britannia £2 coin isn’t listed, this is because it is a definitive design, however the mintage increased to just over 3.5 million.
It will be very interesting to see how these coins fare in our updated Scarcity Indexes which will be released in July, so keep your eyes peeled for any changes.
And keep hold of your coins – you never know what they might be worth in the future! Remember you can Find, Collect and Swap all your coins for FREE with the Change Checker App: http://www.changechecker.org
2016 mintage figures just released!
The Royal Mint have just released the mintage figures for the 2016 dated circulation coins.
Mintage figures have been released for the 2016 coins.
These are the new figures:
WW1 Army £2 – 9,550,000
Shakespeare Comedies £2 – 4,335,000
Shakespeare Histories £2 – 4,615,000
Shakespeare Tragedies £2 – 5,695,000
Great Fire of London £2 – 5,135,000
Britannia £2 – 2,925,000
Peter Rabbit 50p – 9,600,000
Beatrix Potter 50p – 6,900,000
Jemima Puddle-Duck 50p – 2,100,000
Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 50p – 8,800,000
Squirrel Nutkin 50p – 5,000,000
Team GB 50p – 6,400,000
Battle of Hastings 50p – 6,700,000
We’ll have a closer look at these figures and come back with a full analysis on Monday with updated graphs so stay tuned!