Uncategorised
A History of Britannia on UK Coinage
The allegorical figure of Britannia has had a presence on our coins from as early as the Roman era, to as recently as the end of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Let’s take a closer look into the history of Britannia on our coinage, and why some coins she features on may be worth keeping an eye on!
Britannia’s debut on coins
Britannia is a fictional representation of Britain itself, and first appeared on our coins in Roman times.
This original interpretation of her can be seen wielding a spear and a shield on the rocks, and was created during the reign of Emperor Hadrian all the way back in 119 AD. She remained on Roman coins for some time, but later vanished from our coinage for 1,532 years!
A millennium later
In 1672, King Charles II brought Britannia back to lift the nations’ spirits. Seen over the waves, she keeps a spear in one hand, but this time holds an olive sprig in the other, as a symbol of peace. The shield remains, perched at her side, but it’s now embellished with the union flag.
Credit: Numista
At this point in time, the work of the navy was especially crucial in securing power, trade and success, and Britannia’s image became an emblem of Britain’s maritime prowess. This was further cemented by iterations of Britannia from 1797 onwards showing her with a trident in her left hand instead of a spear.
Credit: The Royal Mint Museum
Her portrait changed once again in 1825, where she can be seen facing the opposite way, with the addition of a Roman helmet, a nod to her origins on Roman coins
Credit: Numista
Many monarchs featured Britannia consistently on their coinage after her reintroduction in 1672 until 1971, mostly on bronze or copper coins. In 1987, her likeness was even used for gold bullion coins by the Royal Mint.
Britannia on UK decimal coins
Since it’s decimal introduction in 1969, Britannia could be found on definitive 50p coins all the way up to 2008, when her portrait was replaced by the Royal Shield design. This change caused an uproar within the coin collecting community and beyond, and even lead to a petition, as many felt she should remain on our 50p coin.
After a small break from circulating coinage, Britannia made a triumphant return as the face of the definitive £2 coin which was released in 2015.
The rarest definitive £2
This coin would go on to become the rarest definitive £2 coin to date, with the 2015 Britannia £2 coin securing a mintage of only 650,000! But why were so few minted?
Well both Technology and Britannia designs entered circulation in 2015, and with a massive 35,360,058 Technologies minted, there wasn’t the demand for a large amount of Britannias. The following year, only 2,925,000 Britannia £2s were minted, but after that, we didn’t see any new ones in our change until 2021 and 2022.
According to our most recent eBay Tracker, a 2015 dated Britannia £2 can fetch you as much as £6.24 on the secondary market, that’s over x3 its face value!
There is also an error version of this coin you can look out for, where the portrait on the obverse of the coin is misaligned by a 150 degree angle!
The 2015 £2 isn’t the only rare coin to feature Britannia however – as the 2008 Britannia 50p has a mintage of just 3,500,000 – which is far less than previous years! The mintage was so low in fact, that it brought down the average of the Britannia 50p as a whole, causing it to become ‘Less common’ on our Scarcity Index.
Will we see Britannia again?
Do you have any coins featuring Britannia in your collection? Perhaps you even have one of the rare or error versions of these coins, comment below!
This year, we can expect to see the new King Charles III definitive £2 entering circulation, so I wonder if we’ll see Britannia again on our circulating coins? Let us know what you think…
Sign up to our BU Coin subscription service to make sure you never miss a UK coin issue! Sign up >>
One-of-a-kind 50p Trial Piece sells for £1,850!
The Royal Mint held their trial pieces auction on 11th February 2024, and with more than 200 items available, it was their largest to date! The winning bids of the Brilliant Uncirculated 50p pieces varied, but there were some surprising figures – keep reading to find out which piece sold for nearly £1,900!
What is a Trial Piece?
When new coins are being designed, trial pieces are created to allow engineers at the Mint to experiment with different techniques. Some features on coins are ambitious, but by creating trial pieces during the testing process, this helps discover which features may not be viable.
Engineers usually produce between 7 and 30 die trial pieces per product before it is released to the public, depending on how complex the design is. When you consider how many of each coin go on to be created for collectors, these trial pieces are extremely rare and collectible.
Usually, once a product has been tested and approved, most of the die trial pieces are destroyed, with only one of each retained for reference purposes. And, occasionally The Royal Mint holds an auction for these one-of-a-kind trial pieces, giving collectors the chance to get their hands on these unique coins.
If the fact that there is only one of each piece in existence wasn’t enough, each trial piece is also authenticated with a Trial Pieces mark on the obverse. The mark features the inscription ‘ROYAL MINT TRIAL’ around a special high security feature. This mark is easily visible on pieces featuring Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse, however it’s much smaller and harder to spot on pieces with King Charles III’s obverse.
Credit: The Royal Mint Auctions
Credit: The Royal Mint Auctions
Big bids!
In the latest auction, a selection of trial pieces from 2022 and 2023 in various metal specifications were available, but we’ve taken a look at the winning bids on the Brilliant Uncirculated 50ps.
Unsurprisingly, the piece that fetched the most at auction was the 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Memoriam 50p Trial Piece, with a winning bid of £1,850! This was the first UK coin issued following the Queen’s passing, and the first to feature King Charles III on the obverse, making it highly collectable.
Sticking with the royal theme, the 2023 Coronation 50p Trial Piece sold for a whopping £1,100, but it didn’t quite make second place as the 2022 Harry Potter 50p Trial Piece snuck in there with a winning bid of £1,250!
Interestingly, whoever managed to secure the 2022 Harry Potter 50p Trial Piece is now the proud owner of a coin with a lenticular feature on both sides. The Harry Potter 50p series was the first time we’d ever seen a lenticular feature on a UK 50p coin, so to have TWO on the same coin is quite something!
Credit: The Royal Mint Auction
All of these pieces are highly sought after, and even the 2023 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 50p which sold for the lowest price of all the Brilliant Uncirculated 50ps still fetched 720 times its face value!
Are you one of the lucky ones?
The Trial Pieces auction is open to the general public, so we’d love to know if you have ever been lucky enough to win a bid for one of these special pieces. Or perhaps you’ve previously made a bid but didn’t manage to secure the piece – let us know in the comments below!
Test your pre-historic knowledge with our ultimate dinosaur quiz!
The Tales of the Earth 50p series continued with the 2024 UK T-Rex 50p in December last year, kicking off the Iconic Specimens Collection!
The collection celebrates some of the most legendary dinosaurs to roam the Earth, with designs by renowned paleo-artist Robert Nicholls who had expert guidance from Professor Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum. Still to come in the Iconic Specimens Collection are the Stegosaurus 50p and the Diplodocus 50p.
Test your knowledge!
In honour of these mighty dinosaurs, we want to test your pre-historic knowledge! Take our ultimate dinosaur quiz and let us know what you scored!
Continue your Tales of the Earth 50p collection
Secure your T-Rex 50p and pre-order the others in the collection >>