Posts Tagged ‘£2 coin’
The 2020 designs – what to expect from next year’s coins
***UPDATE***
As of The Royal Proclamations issued on 11th October 2019, a further two new coins have been confirmed for release next year…
A new £2 coin will be issued to celebrate 100 Years of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels. .
2020 Agatha Christie £2
The design is said to feature a nearly completed jigsaw puzzle with the final piece ready to be inserted, and the inscription ‘1920 100 YEARS OF MYSTERY 2020′.
Agatha Christie published her first novel ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ in 1920, which introduced detective Hercule Poirot, who became a long-running character in Christie’s work. In total, the detective features in 33 novels and 54 short stories!
Following the incredible popularity of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 50p featuring fictional-detective Sherlock Holmes and the Samuel Pepys’ £2 in the 2019 Annual Coin set, we can’t wait to see another great British writer celebrated on UK coinage.
2020 75th Anniversary of VE Day £2
A further £2 coin will also be issued with the inscription ‘VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY‘ to commemorate 75 years since VE Day and the end of the second world war.
VE Day is commonly used to refer to Victory Day in Europe which celebrates the formal acceptance of the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on 8 May 1945, marking the end of the war.
Featuring a woman holding a newspaper aloft in crowd of celebrating people, set against a backdrop of the word VICTORY, this new £2 coin will mark a pivotal moment in British history.
Excitingly, this new £2 will also have an edge inscription reading ‘JUST TRIUMPH AND PROUD SORROW’.
Remember, you can sign-up for all our latest 2020 coin news using the sign-up for below!
The Royal Proclamation published on 12th July 2019 has officially revealed three new coins which will be released next year...
Last week we shared the news about the 2020 Team GB 50p coin, which is sure to be a firm favourite amongst collectors, especially following the resounding popularity of the 2012 Olympic 50ps.
The new Team GB 50p will be issued by The Royal Mint next year to support Great Britain in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
However, we also have another two coins to look forward to, including a Mayflower £2 coin and a George III £5 coin.
2020 Mayflower £2
2020 marks the 400th anniversary of The Mayflower’s voyage from Plymouth, England to the ‘New World’ in 1620.
102 Pilgrims and around 30 crew aboard the ship spent two months at sea, battling against the North Atlantic wind on their journey to America.
Upon arrival, the Mayflower Compact was signed, allowing the English Puritan settlers to establish the first permanent New England colony.
To celebrate this important anniversary, The Royal Mint will be issuing a Mayflower £2 coin in 2020.
Mayflower Trial £2
Did you know that back in 1994 The Royal Mint created the first trial bi-metallic £2 coins and these actually featured the Mayflower ship on the design?
There were just over 4,500 packs issued which makes it an incredibly rare example of a bi-metallic £2 coin. More than 100 times rarer than the UK’s rarest £2 coin in circulation, the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games.
Because of this, it can sell on the secondary market for well into three figures.
It will certainly be very interesting to see how the design of the 2020 coin compares to this 1994 trial piece.
2020 George III £5
Next year marks the 200th anniversary since the death of George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland.
He ruled the two countries separately until their union in 1801, after which his reign continued until his death in 1820.
George’s life and reign were longer than any British monarch before him, although his last 10 years were fraught with mental illness, resulting in his eldest son George IV ruling as Prince Regent.
To celebrate the life of George III, The Royal Mint will be issuing a new £5 coin in 2020.
Stay up to date with all the latest 2020 coin news…
At the moment the designs are still top secret, but we can’t wait to see what the 2020 coins will look like!
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What’s your favourite £2 coin design of the year 2018?
We’re on the hunt for the best Coin Design of 2018 as part of the 2018 Change Checker Awards and we need your help! With over 50 new coins released this year, we’ve decided to shortlist the coins by denomination and then determine one overall winner from the top 10p, 50p, £2 and £5 coins as voted by Change Checkers!
£2 Coins
Eight brand new £2 coins have been released this year, including a stunning 5 coin RAF series and the first coin in a 3 coin series of £2s commemorating intrepid explorer, Captain Cook.
But which 2018 £2 coin is your favourite?
Cast your vote now using the poll at the bottom of the page and find out more about the different £2 coins from 2018 below!
RAF Badge £2
To mark the centenary of The RAF, The Royal Mint issued a commemorative £2 coin which is the first in the 2018 RAF series of five coins. The reverse features a design by Rhys Morgan of the Badge of the RAF – an eagle in front of a circle inscribed with the official motto ‘ Per Ardua Ad Astra’, which is Latin for ‘Through adversity to the stars’, with the Imperial Crown at the top.
RAF Spitfire £2
Designed by Richard and Neil Talbot, the second coin in the commemorative 2018 £2 coin series marking the centenary of the RAF features one of the most famous aircraft ever built, the Supermarine Spitfire, which first flew in 1936 and went on to contribute heavily to the ultimate victory of WWII.
RAF Vulcan £2
The third coin in the commemorative 2018 £2 coin series marking the centenary of the RAF features a favourite across the Nation’s Air Festivals, the jet powered Vulcan. This impressive aircraft is instantly recognised for its sleek delta wing, as captured in Richard and Neil Talbot’s £2 coin design.
RAF Sea King £2
The fourth £2 coin in the series marking the centenary of the RAF was also designed by Richard and Neil Talbot and features the Sea King helicopter which entered service with the Royal Air Force in 1978, exclusively in a search and rescue role across six UK locations.
RAF Lightning II £2
The final coin in the 2018 RAF series features the newest aircraft to the air force, the F-35 Lightning II. As a fifth-generation aircraft, the superior air capabilities of the Lightning II will make a potent mix with the Typhoon when it enters service in 2018 and has been beautifully captured by Richard and Neil Talbot on this £2 coin.
Captain Cook £2
To mark the 250th anniversary of British explorer Captain James Cook’s Voyage of Discovery, The Royal Mint issued this historic £2 coin. The distinctive reverse was designed by Gary Breeze featuring the Stern of HM Bark Endeavour, Captain Cook’s famous ship, leaving Plymouth as the first in a three coin series that will be arranged together to reveal the full design.
Frankenstein £2
This £2 coin was issued by The Royal Mint to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s famous novel ‘Frankenstein’. The reverse of this gothic coin was designed by Thomas Doherty and features the words ‘Frankenstein’ in an electric gothic font and the edge inscription says ‘A SPARK OF BEING’.
Armistice £2
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, The Royal mint have issued this 2018 coin which completes the set of commemorative £2 coins released from 2014-2018 to mark the centenary of the First World War. The reverse was designed by Stephen Raw and features the words ‘The truth untold, the pity of war’, from the Wilfred Owen poem Strange Meeting.
With such poignant and stunning designs to choose from, it’s certainly going to be hard work to pick a favourite, but we can’t wait to see which £2 coin will come out on top!
The winning £2 will then be entered into our Coin Design of the Year vote as part of the 2018 Change Checker Awards, alongside the top 10p, 50p and £5 coins from 2018 to determine which coin should be crowned the overall winner!
The voting has now closed and the results can be seen below:
It’s now time for you to vote for your overall winner, shortlisted from Change Checker’s favourite A-Z 10p, 50p, £2 and £5 coin of the year.
View our full range of CERTIFIED BU £2 coins here >>
Happy Birthday to the £2 coin!
Today marks 20 years since the bi-metallic £2 coins were released into circulation. So to celebrate our much loved £2 coins, we’ve taken a look back at the history of the £2 coin.
£2 coins have been in circulation since 1986, when a commemorative coin was issued to mark the XIII Commonwealth Games. Although these coins are legal tender, they were never common in everyday circulation.
Commonwealth Games £2 issued in 1986.
Following a review of the United Kingdom’s coinage, the decision was made that a general-circulation £2 coin was needed and so the new bi-metallic coin was introduced on the 15th June 1998.
This was the first time bi-metallic coinage was used in the UK.
The first ‘Technology’ £2 coins were designed by Bruce Rushin using concentric circles to 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.
The ‘Technology’ coin was the first bi-metallic £2 and was designed by Bruce Rushin
The Queen with a Necklace £2
The first of these ‘Technology’ £2 coins were actually dated 1997 which earned the coin the nickname the ‘Queen with a Necklace’ £2 which has an enduring legacy in the collecting world. As the first bi-metallic £2 coins were issued in 1997, just prior to the Queen’s portrait change in 1998, this meant that the older portrait by Raphael Maklouf was only used for one year: 1997.
1997 ‘Queen with a necklace’ portrait designed by Raphael Maklouf.
His version featured Queen Elizabeth II wearing a necklace, which is how the nickname was derived and they were snapped up by collectors on release in the belief they would go on to become a future rarity. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case and as it turned out, the coin had a mintage of nearly 14 million.
There are a few stories which crop up more often than others, and to help dispel some of the myths about the £2 coins you can find in your change, you can read our blog here.
This Technology design was used on £2 coins every year from 1997 until 2015 when it was replaced by Britannia. Britannia has a long standing history with British coinage having first appeared on a 1672 Farthing during the reign of Charles II. Antony Dufort’s modern interpretation of Britannia features on Britain’s highest denomination circulating coin, the £2, which was a very popular move from The Royal Mint.
What’s so special about the 2015 Britannia £2?
Antony Dufort’s modern interpretation of Britannia.
However, it wasn’t until 2016 when The Mint released the mintage figures for the 2015 coins that the real surprise was unveiled.
Only 650,000 of the 2015 date Britannia £2 coins had been stuck for circulation, making it one of the most scarce UK £2 coins ever! So scarce in fact that there were fewer of this coin than the England and the Scotland coins from the famous 2002 Commonwealth Games series.
The UK 2015 Britannia £2 Coin
Own one of the most-scarce circulating £2 coins ever issued
This first-year 2015 £2 Britannia is already one of the most-scarce circulating £2 coins ever issued with just 650,000 coins passing through banks and cash centres.
That places it third equal in the all-time low mintage charts!