Posts Tagged ‘£2’
New £2 coin series announced to commemorate RAF centenary
What a year 2018 is turning out to be, we’ve had four new Beatrix Potter 50p coin, 26 A-Z 10p coins and now I’m delighted to reveal five new £2 coins to commemorate the Centenary of the Royal Air Force.
The Royal Air Force was formed on April 1st 1918, in the early years of aviation. It was the world’s first independent air force, and is recognised today all over the world for its capability, courage and innovation.
You may already be familiar with the RAF Centenary Badge £2 as this was revealed on New Year’s Day as part of the 2018 year set.
Designed by Rhys Morgan, this first coin in the series celebrates the Royal Air Force as a whole, featuring the badge of the RAF.
This coin is available to own today in CERTIFIED Brilliant Uncirculated condition.
But, you won’t have seen the four other coins, all designed by brothers Richard and Neil Talbot, that make up this spectacular series. Let’s take a look.
RAF – Spitfire
This coin features one of the most famous aircraft ever built, the Supermarine Spitfire, and is the second coin in the series. Designed by Reginald Mitchell, the Spitfire first flew in 1936, its sleek, streamlined fuselage, beautiful elliptical wing shape and incomparable Rolls Royce Merlin engine making it perhaps the most graceful fighter aircraft ever designed.
This coin is also available to own today in CERTIFIED Brilliant Uncirculated condition.
RAF – Vulcan
This coin features the Vulcan bomber and is the third in the series. With it’s instantly recognisable delta wing, the Vulcan combined awesome capability with grace and beauty unmatched by another bomber from the jet-age. In flight, the aircraft was the epitome of power, with superb range and load-carrying capacity.
This coin will be released in May.
RAF – Sea King
This coin features the Sea King helicopter and is the fourth in the series. The Sea King entered service with the Royal Air Force in 1978, exclusively in a search and rescue role, and the last Sea King mission took place on October 4th 2015 when a man found unconscious on Ilfracombe beach was picked up and flown to hospital.
You’ll be able to add this coin to your collection in August.
RAF – Lightning
This, the last coin in the series, features the RAF’s newest aircraft, the F-35 Lightning II. As a fifth-generation aircraft, the complementary air superiority capabilities of Lightning will make a potent mix with the Typhoon.
You’ll be able to own this coin in September.
I’d love to know what is your favourite design from the RAF Centenary £2 series. Personally, I love the Vulcan coin as I remember seeing it’s final flight many years ago as it flew over my school.
The 2018 RAF Spitfire CERTIFIED Brilliant Uncirculated £2 coin
Introducing the new Change Checker eBay Tracker!
I am contacted many times each day by Change Checkers asking, “How much is my coin worth?”.
In truth, the value of a coin is simply what a collector is willing to pay. However, I cannot deny that certain coins do regularly command many times more than face value when sold on auction sites.
There is a lot of misinformation reported in the press regarding coin valuations. News outlets regularly report common coins being worth many thousands of pounds, simply because somebody has listed it for an extortionate amount of money.
In reality, nobody is ever going to pay thousands of pounds for a circulation Benjamin Britten 50p (despite it being a lovely coin!).
To help determine a realistic price for some of the most sought after UK circulation coins, I’m delighted to introduce the Change Checker eBay Tracker, which compares the median price paid for recent completed eBay sales for 10 of the UK’s most popular coins and banknotes.
As you may expect, with the high levels of press coverage surrounding circulating coins and banknotes, prices have generally increased over the period.
The Kew Gardens 50p will now set you back £82, £10 more than 6 months ago. The Jemima Puddle-Duck 50p has more than doubled in its selling price and the Olympic Football 50p is now regularly purchased for over £10.
The AA01 serial numbered polymer £10 banknotes are selling for £21 and it’ll be very interesting to see if this level on interest continues during the next 6 months.
How does the eBay Tracker work?
The Change Checker eBay Tracker takes the last 9 sold prices achieved on eBay and gives the median price achieved (rounded to the nearest 50p). By taking the median, rather than an average, we avoid skewing created by one or two excessive prices achieved.
Please note that the Change Checker eBay Tracker is only ever designed to be a guide as to prices achieved on eBay. Prices may vary depending on collector demand and the quality of the coin being sold. It does not provide any guarantee as to future values of coins.
Britain’s literary heroes celebrated on coins…
The Royal Mint have released many commemorative coins in the past few years and one recurring theme is prominent literary figures.
Tonight is Burns Night, a night when many people around the world will remember one of the world’s most famous poets, Robert Burns.
So naturally, I thought this was a great opportunity to take a look back at some of the recent circulation coins that have celebrated some of Britain’s best loved literary heroes.
Robert Burns (1759 – 1796)
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist who is widely regarded as one of the great literary figures in British history.
Burns night is celebrated each year with a traditional Haggis supper on his birthday, 25th January, and is more widely observed in Scotland than the official national day, St Andrew’s Day.
The reverse design of this £2 coin features an extract from Auld Lang Syne, Burns’ most famous work.
Find out more about this coin here >>
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
William Shakespeare is the most influential literary figure in British history and his works are an important part of Britain’s cultural heritage.
This coin is one of three that celebrate William Shakespeare’s life work and commemorates the 400th anniversary since his death. This coin takes inspiration from Shakespeare’s famous tragedies and features a skull and a rose and was designed by John Bergdahl.
The other two coins in the series celebrate Shakespeare’s most famous ‘Comedies’ and ‘Histories’, taking inspiration from ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ and ‘Macbeth’, respectively.
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)
Charles Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world.
His book On the Origin of the Species was extremely controversial as it made it seem possible that humans evolved from apes, and contradicted the widely held Orthodox Church theory of creation at the time.
The reverse design by Suzie Zamit features a profile portrait of Darwin facing a chimpanzee and is a favourite amongst collectors.
Add this coin to your collection today >>
Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)
Charles Dickens is much loved for his great contribution to classic English literature.
His enchanting stories, vivid characters and depiction of Victorian life are widely acknowledged across the world by critics and scholars alike and his novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.
The reverse design of this £2 coin by Matthew Dent features Dickens’ recognisable profile crafted from the titles of his most famous works.
Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943)
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter, The Royal Mint released this 50p to celebrate Beatrix herself.
Designed by Emma Noble, the coin includes elements that celebrate Beatrix as the artist behind some of the best-loved characters in children’s literature along with the nostalgic font used for the inscription.
Along with this 50p The Mint have also released a further 7 Beatrix Potter coins, featuring many of our favourite characters from her beloved stories, including Peter Rabbit, Tom Kitten and Jemima Puddle-Duck.
The popularity of both the 2016 and 2017 Beatrix Potter 50p series has been astounding and introduced many thousands more people to the world of change collecting.
Own the complete 2017 Beatrix Potter collection today >>
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)
Jane Austen is one of the best-loved English novelists from the 19th century. Her novels were revolutionary and from her first novel, ‘Sense and Sensibility’, readers began a love affair with her fiction that has lasted two centuries.
Designed by Dominique Evans, a portrait of Jane Austen features on this £2 coin, released in 2017, to mark 200 years since her death.
Interestingly, with the introduction of both this coin and the new polymer £10 note, Jane Austen became the first person ever, aside from the reigning monarch, to feature on both a UK coin and UK banknote at the same time.
Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851)
This £2 coin was issued by The Royal Mint to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
Whilst on holiday in Geneva Mary Shelley and her poet friends, including Lord Byron and future Husband Percy Shelley, decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. Out of this Mary Shelley created Frankenstein, a story about a scientist’s scary act at playing God and creating life. It went on to become one of the best loved gothic novels.
The reverse of this gothic coin was designed by Thomas Doherty and features the words ‘Frankenstein’ in an electric gothic font