Mintages
Will the Sir Isaac Newton 50p coin become more scarce than the Kew Gardens?
It’s been reported in the media this week that the Sir Isaac Newton coin will become the most scarce 50p in UK circulation.
Will the Sir Isaac Newton 50p become the rarest coin in UK circulation?
A number of outlets have suggested that only 375 coins will be released giving it a mintage figure 560 times less than the Kew Gardens 50p coin.
An unspecified number of Sir Isaac Newton 50p coins were released into circulation in June
However, we can confirm that this is not the case.
For starters, back in June an unspecified number of Isaac Newton coins were released into circulation. Based on the number of reports we’ve had from Change Checkers, we would estimate that this initial release was in the thousands.
It is true that The Royal Mint are releasing a small amount of Sir Isaac newton 50p coins at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire this week. However, the decision to release a low number coins at the birthplace of Newton is to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the scientist’s birth and is not the total amount that will enter circulation.
Further Sir Isaac Newton coins will be released, in a recent press statement The Royal Mint confirmed, “Members of the public from across the UK can expect to see the circulating edition of the coin in their change over the forthcoming months.”
However, at this stage it is impossible to say when and how many of the remaining Sir Isaac Newton 50p coins will enter circulation. The release of circulation coins is driven by demand from the banks.
It is quite possible that this coin will have a low mintage figure, maybe even less than 210,000, the number of Kew Gardens 50p coins. However, based on previous commemorative coin releases, we believe this to be unlikely.
Either way, we hope you have good luck in your search!
We’d love to know if you’ve found the Sir Isaac Newton 50p coin in your change. Let us know by answering our poll:
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!