The 50p issued to celebrate 50 years since Decimal Day – JUST released!

On February 15th 1971, the UK’s currency went decimal and this enormous change to UK coinage called for one of the biggest publicity campaigns our nation had ever seen!

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘Decimal Day’, as it was known, The Royal Mint has JUST released a brand new 50p.

This brand new 50p, designed by Dominique Evans, features overlapping pre-decimal coins in an ode to Decimal Day, with the date ‘1971’ at the centre of the design.

Over the years, the 50p has become the most-collected and best-loved decimal coin in the UK and given the significance of this anniversary, demand for this new coin is expected to be high.

You can secure your 2021 Decimal Day 50p for your collection for JUST £4.50 (+p&p) by clicking here >>

We’ve seen some amazing coins issued since Decimalisation. In this blog, we take a closer look at some of Change Checker’s favourites.

2019 50th Anniversary of the 50p Coin

2019 marked a milestone moment for coin collectors as the world’s first seven-sided coin celebrated its 50^th anniversary. To celebrate the anniversary, The Royal Mint issued this 50p.

This coin was designed by The Royal Mint design team and is said to ‘pay tribute to the science that gave us the world’s first seven-sided coin’.

Featuring Christopher Ironside’s iconic Britannia on the reverse, inscribed with ‘NEW PENCE’ just as the original 1969 coin was, this unique 50p has not one, but two special features:

1. An exclusive never-before-seen mint mark; the Spirograph type design has been drawn from an extension of lines forming the 50p shape
2. A minting first; on the outer rim of the reverse design, the letters A-G appear on each point and are joined by crossing lines.

You can secure this 50p for your collection, whilst stocks last, for JUST £4.50 (+p&p) here >>

The first-ever £2 coin!

In 1986, a brand new UK denomination was introduced in the form of a £2 coin.

Prior to the introduction of the bi-metallic £2 coins in 1998, single-coloured, nickel-brass £2 coins were issued, purely to mark special occasions. Between 1986 and 1996, there were seven different designs of the single-coloured £2 coins.

The 1986 Commonwealth Games £2 coin changed the face of UK commemorative coins, being the first of its denomination to be struck and the first British coin being issued to commemorate a sporting event.

Do you remember the old specification £2 coins? Let us know in the comments below!

The bi-metallic £2 coin!

The new type of £2 coin was introduced in 1997 and featured an innovative bi-metallic design – the first in the history of British coinage.

The concentric circles on this design by Bruce Rushin represent mankind’s technological evolution from the Iron Age at the centre, to the cogs and wheels in the first ring representing the Industrial Revolution.

The next ring symbolises the computer age with a pattern derived from a silicon chip and the final outer ring represents the age of the Internet with a connecting web of lines.

This design has been used on definitive £2 coins from 1997 to 2015!

Britain’s Round Pounds

The first UK £1 coin was issued in 1983 to replace the £1 banknote, which only lasted a few months in circulation! The £1 coin quickly became a hit with collectors, with everyone trying to hunt down the different designs.

The first £1 coin design features the Royal Coat of Arms designed by Eric Sewell, a chief engraver at the Royal Mint. It also features the edge Inscription: DECUS ET TUTAMEN.

This coin was issued in 1983, 1993, 2003, 2008 and has a circulating mintage of 623,304,510.

After more than 30 years in the nation’s pockets, the familiar round £1 coin was replaced with an all new, 12-sided £1 coin in 2017 and it lost its legal tender status at midnight on 15 October 2017.

Despite this, some round pounds remain incredibly popular with collectors, due to their designs and their low mintages.

Nations of the Crown £1

The new £1 coin first entered circulation in March 2017 and it features 12 sides.

Billed as the most secure circulating coin in the world, the new £1 has been formally named ‘The Nations of the Crown 2017 UK £1′.

The coin, designed by 15-year-old David Pearce following a public competition in 2015, is made up of the English rose, the Welsh leek, the Scottish thistle and the Northern Irish shamrock emerging from one stem within a royal coronet to represent the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom.

5p and 10p Coins

In 1968 the 10 New Pence coin entered circulation to replace the florin as part of Britain’s conversion to a system of decimal currency.

The public was uncertain about using this new coin to start with, after generations of pounds, shillings and pence, meaning the Decimal Currency Board still needed to reassure suspicious Britons to go decimal.

Our 10p coin has seen three different definitive designs and in 2018 we saw our first-ever commemorative designs, with the release of 26 A-Z of Great Britain 10p coins!

In April 1968, 5p coins were issued as a replacement for shillings in preparation for decimalisation in 1971.

These were released into circulation at the same time as the very first 10p coins.

In 1990 and 1992, the specifications of the 5p and 10p were reduced, respectively. On 27^th June 1990 the new 18.00mm 5p was introduced and 30^th September 1992, a reduced size version of the 10 pence coin was introduced

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Since decimalisation, we’ve seen some incredible definitive and commemorative designs to our UK coins.

Let us know in the comment which definitive design is your favourite!

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Secure the brand new 2021 Decimal Day 50p for your collection!

You can own yours in CERFITIED Brilliant Uncirculated quality for just £4.50 (+p&p) today.

Click here to own the 2021 UK Decimal Day 50p now >>