Posts by Ian
2014 Year of the “Mule”: the Royal Mint confirms Lunar Year and Britannia striking errors
The UK 2014 Year of the Horse 1oz Silver ‘Mule’
If you own the 2014 Year of the Horse Lunar Silver Coin or the 2014 Britannia coin, I suggest you go and dig them out before you read any more. That’s because it’s just possible that you are sitting on something rather unusual – a Royal Mint “mule”.
A “mule” is a coin where the one of the sides has been struck with the wrong die. And that’s what happened with some of the Royal Mint’s 2014 Year of the Horse and Britannia coins.
Officially confirmed by the Royal Mint
Year of the ‘Mule’
It seems attention was first drawn to the matter when a US dealer noticed that some of their Britannia coins had a different obverse (heads) side to the rest of the stock, lacking the denticle design around the edge, normally seen with Britannia coins.
The Royal Mint has now acknowledged the error, which has resulted in approximately 17,000 Britannia coins being struck with the non-denticled Year of the Horse obverse and 38,000 Year of the Horse coins having the denticled Britannia version as their obverse.
Selling for 250 times its original value
Perhaps the best recent example of a UK mule in recent years was the undated 20p coin, which was uncovered in 2008. Approximately 250,000 20p coins were struck using an old obverse design, which left them undated. The news was followed by a media frenzy with many millions of people searching their change in the hope finding what was to prove to be a valuable error. Indeed an undated 20p currently changes hands on ebay for around £50 – 250 times its original value.
So what of these latest Royal Mint errors? Unlike the 20p these are not general circulation coins but as bullion coin they will have been sold around the world to coin dealers and investors. That means that they will be much harder for the British general public to track down. Plus, of course, in terms of pure numbers struck, they are considerably scarcer than the undated 20p.
Early listings on ebay have been as high as £500 and above, so if you are lucky enough to own either the 2014 Britannia or Year of the Horse coins, I would definitely dig them out and take a look – it might be your lucky day.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
The Westminster Collection has managed to acquire a small number of the 1oz Silver Year of the Horse ‘Mule’ error coins – if you are interested in owning one please click here for more details.
Do you own the UK’s rarest 50p piece? And it’s not Kew Gardens.
Have you heard about the 50p coin that many thousands of people have found in their daily pocket change which was sold on e-Bay for prices upward of £100.00. Or to put it another way, 200 times its actual value?!
Only 109,000 1992 EC 50p were issued into circulation – roughly half of the Kew Gardens 50p.
It was all because in 2014 The Royal Mint announced that the Kew Gardens 50p coin is the UK’s most scarce circulation coin, with just 210,000 pieces ever been placed into circulation. The result was a media storm and the inevitable overnight ramping of prices.
Half the circulation of the Kew Gardens 50p
But what few people realise is that there is an even rarer UK 50p piece that was issued in half the number of the Kew Gardens coin – just 109,000 coins.
The coin was issued in 1992 to mark the EC Single Market and the UK presidency of the Council of Ministers – perhaps not the most popular of topics, which maybe was the reason so very few were pushed out into circulation. But of course, its lack of popularity at the time, is the very thing that now makes it Britain’s rarest 50p coin.
Sadly, however hard you search, unlike the Kew Gardens 50p, you will not find this one in your change. That’s because it is one of the old-sized 50p coins that were demonetised in 1998.
The coin itself was designed by Mary Milner Dickens and pictures the UK’s place at the head of the Council of Ministers’ conference table. The stars represent each of the nations’ capital cities placed in their relative geographical position.
But it won’t be the coin’s clever design that will guarantee its numismatic interest for years to come. It is its status as the UK’s most rare circulation 50p is what will intrigue collectors and have them searching and saving up in years to come.
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
New Benjamin Britten 50p set to strike a chord with Change Checkers
The new Benjamin Britten 50p is not likely to be seen in your change until 2014
The Royal Mint’s latest 50p coin is certain to “strike a chord” with Change Checkers.
That’s because it celebrates the centenary of the birth of one of the UK’s most prominent classical composers – Sir Benjamin Britten.
Born in Suffolk on 22 November 1913, Britten studied at the Royal School of Music before going on to write some of the 20th Century’s best known opera, choral and classical pieces, including Peter Grimes (1945), a Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1945) and the War Requiem (1962).
The new 50p design has been created by another composer and artist, Tom Phillips CBE, RA. Commenting on his design Phillips says: “What I wanted the coin to speak of was music. Thus the stave soon entered the design… and his name married well with the stave. The natural accompaniment with Britten’s passion for poetry as our preeminent composer of opera and song, was some kind of key quotation. The words which eventually suggested themselves, come from the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings. What better clarion call for a musical anniversary could there be than “Blow, bugle, blow: set the wild echoes flying?”
Sadly though Change Checkers will have to wait several months until you can hope to see the new Benjamin Britten coin in general circulation.