Posts Tagged ‘Rare’
Your guide to the Pre-1997 £2 Coins
In 1986, a brand new UK denomination was introduced in the form of a £2 coin.
These original £2 coins were never commonly found in circulation, as they were mainly struck for collectors. This made them much rarer than their successor, the bi-metallic £2 coin, as their mintage figures were much lower.
The pre-1997 £2 coins are still legal tender but they’re not used in circulation and banks/shops can refuse to accept them. Despite this, they still remain incredibly popular amongst collectors!
So, in this blog, we’ve put together a guide to the pre-1997 £2 coins, including everything you need to know about these collectable commemoratives.
What are old specification £2 coins?
The £2 coin has changed in its appearance since it’s first introduction in 1986…
The familiar, fully circulating bi-metallic £2 coin, was only introduced in 1998 and we’ve seen already seen over 50 different designs in total!
But prior to this, single-coloured, nickel-brass £2 coins were issued, purely to mark special occasions.
Between 1986 and 1996, there were seven different designs of the single-coloured £2 coins.
Spot the difference…
| Pre-1997 (old specification) | 1997 onwards (new specification) | |
| Weight | 15.976g | 12g |
| Diameter | 28.4mm | 28.4mm |
| Metal | Nickel-brass | Outer Nickel-Brass Inner Cupro-Nickel |
| Obverse Effigy | 1969-1985 – 2nd Portrait, Arnold Machin 1985-1997 – 3rd Portrait, Raphael Maklouf | 1997-2015 – 4th Portrait, Ian Rank-Broadley 2015-onwards – 5th Portrait, Jody Clark |
As you can see, although the diameter of the £2 coin stayed the same, the weight was significantly heavier in the pre-1997 £2 coins!
The metal composition also changed so that the new bi-metallic coin could be distinguishable from the other coins in circulation.
So, how many of these coins were issued? Let’s take a look at our Pre-1997 £2 Mintage Chart and see..
You might have spotted the top coin in our chart has a mintage of JUST 381,400! Let’s take a look at each of these coins in closer detail to get the full story…
1986 Commonwealth Games
Fact file:
- Year of issue: 1986
- Obverse designer: Arnold Machin
- Reverse designer: Norman Sillman
- Mintage: 8,212,184
The 1986 Commonwealth Games £2 coin changed the face of UK commemorative coins, being the first of its denomination to be struck and the first British coin being issued to commemorate a sporting event.
The thirteenth Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh in 1986, and are well remembered for being boycotted by 32 of the 59 eligible countries who did not agree with Britain’s sporting connections to South Africa during the Apartheid era.
The reverse design features a thistle encircled by a laurel wreath over the cross of St Andrew.
1996 Football
Fact file:
- Year of issue: 1996
- Obverse designer: Raphael Maklouf
- Reverse designer: John Mills
- Mintage: 5,141,350
In 1996, England hosted the 10th European football championship and a commemorative £2 coin was struck in celebration of football.
The reverse design resembles a football, and is accentuated by the unusual concave surface of the coin. The year of 1996 is prominent on the design and the sixteen small rings represent the sixteen teams competing in the tournament.
The eventual winners of the competition were Germany who knocked out hosts England in the semi-finals.
1995 Peace
Fact file:
- Year of issue: 1995
- Obverse designer: Raphael Maklouf
- Reverse designer: John Mills
- Mintage: 4,394,566
This commemorative £2 was issued in 1995 to mark 50 years since the end of World War II.
Victory in Europe Day, or VE Day, is the 8th May 1945 when armed forces formally accepted the surrender of Nazi Germany. Upon the news, jubilant crowds sang and danced in the streets of London, New York, Paris and Moscow.
The reverse design by John Mills features a dove as “a symbol of aspiring peace; a calm, bountiful and optimistic image”.
1989 Bill of Right
Fact file:
- Year of issue: 1989
- Obverse designer: Raphael Maklouf
- Reverse designer: John Lobban
- Mintage: 4,392,825
In 1689, Prince William and Mary accepted the Declaration of Rights prior to being offered the throne. This effectively shifted the balance of power from the Crown to Parliament and changed the course of British political history.
This £2 coin was issued in 1989 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of this landmark Act. There were 2 versions of the coin issued – English and Scottish.
This coin is the English reverse design , which features the Crown of St. Edward and the inscription ‘Tercentenary of the Bill of Rights’
1995 United Nations
Fact file:
- Year of issue: 1995
- Obverse designer: Raphael Maklouf
- Reverse designer: Michael Rizzello
- Mintage: 1,668,575
The United Nations was established in the aftermath of World War II with the aim of maintaining world peace and to work for social progress.
Since its creation in 1945, the UN has sought to resolve potential conflicts peacefully and fight against poverty, hunger and disease across the world.
This commemorative £2 coin issued in 1995 marks 50 years since the inception of the UN, and features flags of nations accompanying the 50th anniversary symbol.
1994 Bank of England
Fact file:
- Year of issue: 1994
- Obverse designer: Raphael Maklouf
- Reverse designer: Leslie Durbin
- Mintage: 1,668,575
When William and Mary came to the throne, public finances were weak and the system of money and credit were in disarray.
The Bank of England was founded in 1694 to act as the Government’s banker and debt manager, and its position as the centre of the UK’s financial system is maintained to this day.
This commemorative £2 was issued in 1994 to mark its 300th anniversary. The reverse design features the original Corporate Seal of the Bank of England and distinctive Cypher of William and Mary.
1989 Claim of Right
Fact file:
- Year of issue: 1989
- Obverse designer: Raphael Maklouf
- Reverse designer: John Lobban
- Mintage: 381,400
This is the second coin to be issued in 1989 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Prince William and Mary accepting the Declaration of Rights.
This Scottish reverse design features the Crown of Scotland and the inscription ‘Tercentenary of the Claim of Right’.
The mintage for this £2 however, is much lower. With just 381,400 issued, this technically makes it the rarest £2 coin ever! In comparison, the UK’s current rarest circulating £2 coin, the 2002 Commonwealth Games – Ireland, has a mintage of 485,500!
So hopefully our guide to the Pre-1997 £2 coins will help you along the way to expanding your collection!
What’s most exciting about all seven of these coins is that despite still being legal tender, they’re not used in circulation anymore and banks/shops can refuse to accept them. This makes these coins particularly sought-after by collectors!
Do you have any of these coins in your collection already? Let us know in the comments below!
Own the UK’s FIRST-EVER Commemorative £2 Coin!
2020 Scarcity Index Update!
We’re excited to reveal to you the very first Scarcity Index of 2020!
The updated 50p, A-Z 10p and £2 indexes below allow you to discover how sought-after the coins in your collection really are…
This information has been compiled using data from the Change Checker Swap Centre and presented in the easy to use indexes below, with arrows to signify how many places up or down a coin has moved since the last Scarcity Index.
50p Scarcity Index
The previous Scarcity Index update saw some exciting changes to the 50p index, as we were able to include the 2018 50p coins following the release of their mintage figures.
This was great news for Change Checkers who have the 2018 Beatrix Potter 50ps in their collection, as both the Flopsy Bunny and Peter Rabbit 50ps have proved incredibly sought-after.
Despite both coins having the same mintage figure of 1,400,000, the Flopsy Bunny 50p is the most sought-after of the Beatrix Potter coins and is in fact the scarcest non-Olympic 50p coin in circulation, aside from of course the Kew Gardens 50p – the UK’s most sought-after circulation 50p.
Whilst both the Flopsy Bunny and 2018 Peter Rabbit 50ps have moved up the index one place since the last update, the other 2018 50ps haven’t fared quite so well, with the Mrs Tittlemouse and Paddington at the Station both moving down the index and the other 2018 50ps remaining unchanged.
The biggest mover on this latest Scarcity Index update goes to the Olympic Fencing 50p, which has moved up the index an incredible twelve places, following its five place drop on the previous update.
As we look forward to the Olympic Games which will be held in Tokyo later this year, perhaps we’ll see more of the Olympic 50ps increase in popularity by the next Scarcity Index update.
A-Z 10p Scarcity Index
We’re used to seeing quite a bit of movement on the A-Z 10p index as these particularly tricky-to-find coins are snapped up by collectors.
Interestingly, in this latest update only the top and bottom coins have remained unchanged, with B for Bond staying on top spot as the current scarcest A-Z 10p coin in circulation.
For many, this coin seems to be a firm favourite from the A-Z of Great Britain collection which was released in 2018, so it comes as no surprise that it has found its way to the top of the list.
P for Postbox is unfortunately bottom of the pile once again, although it’s worth remembering that all of these coins are considered sought-after and collectors fortunate enough to come across just one will be considering themselves lucky.
The biggest movers on the latest 10p index update are W for World Wide Web and S for Stonehenge, which have both moved up the index by 14 places.
S for Stonehenge actually dropped by 14 places in the previous index, so this could be the coin levelling back out again.
It will be interesting to see how the index changes as more collectors come across these coins and as we await the release of the 2019 mintage figures. We currently know that 220,000 of each design entered circulation in 2018 and a further 2.1 million coins overall were released in 2019, but exact figures for individual 2019 designs are currently unknown.
£2 Scarcity Index
Following the 2018 mintage figure reveal, we know that no £2 coins have entered circulation since 2016, so the £2 index continues to remain fairly stable with no new coins to add to the mix.
The top five coins are unchanged since the last index and it comes as no surprise that the Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland £2 remains on the top spot, as this £2 has a mintage figure of just 485,500 and is considered incredibly sought-after amongst collectors.
All three Olympic themed £2 coins (Olympic Handover, Olympic Centenary and London 2012 Handover) also remain very close to the top of the index and I wonder if the Tokyo Olympics this year will affect the scarcity of these already very popular coins.
The biggest mover on the £2 index is the Florence Nightingale coin, which has moved up by six places, whilst the 60th Anniversary of World War Two coin has moved down by five places to the third from bottom space.
As I’m sure you’ll agree, it would be fantastic to see some new £2 coins entering circulation and how they might affect the £2 Scarcity Index. Fingers crossed they’ll be enough demand for these coins to enter circulation soon!
How your Scarcity Index works
Generally collectors have had to rely upon mintage figures to identify the scarcest coins. But they only tell part of the story. Trying to find a good quality coin from 15 – 20 years ago, even for a higher mintage issue, is much more challenging than a more recent issue, as coins become damaged over time and are ultimately removed from circulation.
Additionally, some designs are more hoarded than others by people who might not normally collect coins – the poignant First World War £2 Coin series being an example. Finally, it can be up to a couple of years before the Royal Mint eventually confirms the actual mintage for an issue.
That’s why we have combined the mintage information with two other key pieces of information.
- How many of each design are listed as “collected” by Change Checkers, indicating the relative ease of finding a particular coin.
- The number of times a design has been requested as a swap over the previous 3 months, showing the current level of collector demand.
Importantly, as new coins are released and popularity rises and falls across different designs the Scarcity Index will be updated quarterly allowing Change Checkers to track the relative performance of the UK’s circulation coins.
How much are my coins worth?
The Scarcity Index does not necessarily equate to value but it is certainly an effective indicator. For example, the Kew Gardens 50p coin commands a premium of up to 200 times face value on eBay.
You can use the 6 point guide to help you determine a more realistic value for your coins.
What about £1 Coins?
The £1 Scarcity Index has already been published for the Round £1 coins and, because they are no longer being issued, this is now set in stone.
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
Have I found a rare coin? £2 ‘errors’ explained!
So you’ve noticed something’s not quite right with the £2 coin you’ve just found in your change. A quick web search of the strange variation you’ve noticed shows a plethora of eBay listings and news articles claiming that you might have just hit the jackpot and your ‘error’ coin is worth a small fortune! But before you think about selling your coin, you should first find out a bit more about how these errors occur.
Read on to learn more about some of the mis-strikes found on £2 coins and how their bi-metallic quality causes the differences to be something entirely more spectacular than those found on monometallic (single metal) coins.
Striking bi-metallic coins
In order to understand why mis-strikes on bi-metallic coins are often more pronounced than monometallic coins, it’s first a good idea to look into how these coins are produced.
When striking £2 coins, the first step is to punch a hole through a blank planchet to create the outer section. The inner core is taken from a different metal, sized to fit inside the outer ring.
A groove is milled around the edge of the inner core so that when both parts are struck together, the metals will fuse as the outer ring deforms and spread into the groove, locking it into place.
Now that we know how £2 coins are struck, here are some of the mis-strikes and errors that can occur in the process…
Clipped Planchet
Image Credit: Coin News
This first example shows how the inner core was punched out from the end of the sheet of metal used for blanks, forming a straight or ragged edge clip.
Whilst this also occurs with monometallic coins, the pairing with an outer ring exposes a large gap which is much more noticeable.
The Royal Mint strike millions of coins each year, so it’s inevitable that variances will occur during the striking process and can’t always be picked up during quality control, despite the fact that this particular coin would weigh less than the standard 12g £2 coin. However, a small quantity of coins do sometimes manage to slip through the net and as I’m sure you’ll agree, they make for interesting collecting.
But before you pay over the odds for one of these coins, beware of fakers! Some coins are manipulated to look like mis-strikes or error coins and sold to unsuspecting buyers. Check the clipped planchet edge of the coin to see if it’s genuine by making sure the detail of the design fades away towards the edge rather than suddenly stopping, which would indicate the coin had been cut.
Off Centre Inner Core
Image Credit: Coin News
This image shows an inner core which hasn’t been aligned properly prior to being struck.
Due to the way the inner and outer core are struck together with the two metals being lined up and then fused together during striking, a misalignment will mean that the inner core spills into the outer ring, as seen in the image above. There might also be a gap between the two metals on the opposing join.
This mis-strike is thought to be fairly common on the bi-metallic 12 sided £1 coin as well as some of the Technology £2 coins and even foreign bimetallic coins, but have you ever spotted one in your change?
Faulty Outer Ring
Our next example shows a faulty planchet or outer ring, where the inner core is exposed.
In the image above, you can actually see the specific engineering design where the inner core is grooved to help the metal bond to the outer ring and fuse during striking.
Similar to the first mis-strike we looked at, this could be caused by a clipped planchet, this time created when the outer ring was punched, however coins like this may also be caused by tampering post striking, for example by fakers trying to replace the inner core of a £2 with another coin to pass off as a rare error.
The Holy Grail of Bi-metallic ‘Errors’
Image Credit: Coin News
This type of error is described as the Holy Grail of bimetallic ‘errors’ and is the result of the nickel-brass £2 blank not having the inner core section punched out before being struck.
This means that the £2 coin is made from one full piece of nickel-brass, completely contrasting the very notion of a bimetallic coin.
A 2007 monometallic £2 was verified by The Royal Mint and in the email confirming the mis-strike, it was mentioned that they had only seen 4-5 similar coins before.
This rare striking error is highly sought after and coins have achieved extraordinary prices in private sales and auctions.
Foreign Planchet
Image Credit: Coin News
Another £2 error that can occur is when it’s been struck on the wrong planchet – a blank normally used to strike a different coin.
As The Royal Mint strikes a huge quantity of coins for different denominations and even different countries, blanks can sometimes end up in the wrong striking chamber, creating a wrong or foreign planchet error.
This is actually down to human error rather than a mis-strike and the coins would normally be picked out during quality control, however some have been spotted in circulation, not only on the £2 coin, but on various different denominations across UK coins and world wide.
Other £2 ‘errors’ that are worth keeping your eyes peeled for!
2014 First World War Kitchener £2 – Missing denomination
This £2 coin was issued in 2014 to mark 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War. It features an image of Lord Kitchener who was a prominent figure on British government propaganda campaigns during the time.
5,720,000 of these coins entered circulation, meaning it could be quite easy to stumble across one in your change. However, a small number of these coins are supposed to have entered circulation without the ‘Two Pounds’ denomination on the obverse.
Sometimes the denomination of the coin will feature on the reverse design, meaning it won’t appear on the obverse too. This can be seen on the Trinity House £2 coin which was issued earlier in the same year as the First World War £2.
It’s possible that the dies used to strike the obverse of the Trinity House £2 coin wasn’t replaced when the production of the First World War Centenary £2 coins began, resulting in the absence of a denomination.
We’ve only heard of two reports of these ‘error’ coins being found in circulation. However, Lockdales Auctioneers officiated the sale of the very first one back in March 2020 to the value of £500!
2015 First World War Navy £2 – ‘Flag’ error
When it was issued in 2015, the First World War Navy £2 coin caused a stir in the collecting world as it was revealed to be one of the rarest £2 coins, with just 650,000 struck for circulation.
The original Navy £2 design (above) shows the coin without any markings on the top right of the mast, but some eagle eyed collectors noticed that their £2 looked to have a flying flag.
As you can see from the two coins pictured above, the coin on the right looks like it has a flag atop the mast, whereas the first coin is free from any markings.
A number of people enquired about whether there were two different designs of the Navy £2 coin struck for circulation, however it was confirmed that the addition of the ‘flag’ was not intentional, and most likely caused by a cracked die.
So how much is my ‘error’ coin worth?
Whilst genuine error coins are out there and can be valuable, so too are a number of common mis-strikes and myths, or even fakes that have been manipulated to look like an error.
These coins certainly make for interesting collecting and the rarer variations, such as monometallic £2 coins could certainly sell for way over face value.
In fact, one such monometallic mis-strike found on a 2007 Technology £2 is estimated to be worth over £1,000!
Ultimately, as with all coins, it’s all down to how much an individual collector is willing to pay to add that coin to their collection, so we recommend checking out our 6 Point Guide to valuing your coins to determine it’s worth.
If you’ve found a £2 coin with a mis-strike, it’s also worth having it verified and authenticated by The Royal Mint, who will supply a letter detailing their findings.
So have you found any interesting variations on your bimetallic £2 coins? Let us know in the comments below!
With thanks to Scott Wren from Coin News.
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