The 50p was introduced in advance of decimalisation to help ready the population for changes ahead. It replaced the ten shilling note. Its shape was ground-breaking - heptagonal to ensure it was instantly recognisable and of constant width so it could roll freely through a machine. In 1969 a 50p coin was worth the equivalent of £8 today. At the time it was the world's most valuable coin in general circulation.
Over 2 billion 50p coins have been minted. 1.3 billion are still legal tender.
The first special 50p coin appeared in 1973 to commemorate Britain's entry into the European Economic Community. It featured nine hands to symbolise the nine members. 90 million of these nine-handed coins were minted, a far greater number than any subsequent variant 50p design.
The next special 50p design didn't appear until 1992. It too represented our European partners, in this case the EU Single Market. Only 109,000 were minted, making this the rarest of all 50p coins. If you have one it may be worth £50. The only other large commemorative 50p coin was minted in 1994 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day, and there were 6,705,520 of those.
By 1996, 806 million original-sized 50p coins had been minted. 88% of these depicted Britannia, 11% the nine hands, 0.8% D-Day and just 0.014% the Single Market. That's how rare the Single Market coin was.
In 1997 the Royal Mint slimmed down the 50p following a government review. The new coin was thinner and of smaller diameter, making it less heavy on the pocket (8g rather than 13½g). The first smaller 50p coins entered circulation in September 1997 and the old 50p coins were withdrawn six months later. 806 million new of these new coins would be issued across the following decade.
In 2008 the Royal Shield replaced Britannia as part of a revamp to the entire range of decimal coins. 23 million of these redesigned 50p coins were minted in the first year, and another 153 million have been minted since. Of all the 'ordinary' 50p coins currently in circulation, there are five Britannias to every one Royal Shield.
As for commemorative 50ps, the next pair arrived in 1998. One celebrated the 50th anniversary of the NHS and the other the 25th anniversary of joining the EU. 5 million of each were minted. In 2000, somewhat quirkily, a coin was issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Public Libraries Act. There were 11 million of those.
From 2003 anniversary coins generally appeared once a year, because it seems there was always something worth celebrating.
2003: 100th Anniversary of the formation of the Women's Social and Political Union (3.1 million) 2004: 50th Anniversary of the first four-minute mile by Roger Bannister (9 million) 2005: 250th Anniversary of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (17.7 million) 2006: 150th Anniversary of the institution of the Victoria Cross (12 million) (10 million) 2007: 100th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Scouting Movement (7.7 million) 2008: 2009: 250th anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (210,000) 2010: 100 Years of Girlguiding UK (7.4 million) 2011: 50 years of the work of the World Wide Fund for Nature (3.4 million) 2012: 2013: 100th Anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten/Christopher Ironside (5.3 million) (7 million) 2014: 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (6.5 million) 2015: 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain (5.9 million) 2016: 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings (6.7 million) 2017: 300th Anniversary of Sir Isaac Newton's Gold-Standard Report (1.8 million) 2018: 100th Anniversary of the Representation of the People Act (9 million)
Circulation figures varied greatly year by year. 18 million Samuel Johnson dictionaries were minted, more than any other commemorative 50p, which is why I have one in my collection. But only 210,000 Kew Gardens pagodas were minted, so they're very rare indeed, and should you ever find one you could sell it for 100 times its face value.
Note that in 2006 there were two different Victoria Cross designs, and in 2013 two different 100th birthdays were celebrated. No special 50p coins were introduced in 2008 because that was the year the main design changed. And 2012 was another fallow year because of these...
29 different Olympic designs were minted, all of them in 2011, as the Royal Mint hurled a volley of special coins into circulation. They immediately became very collectable, but their scarcity made collecting them difficult, indeed I've only just this weekend found my 11th. The 'easiest' one to find is Archery, because there were 3,345,500 of those, and the hardest to find is Football with just 1,125,500. Like so.
It's often quite hard to know what sport is being depicted without checking against an official list. The rarest Olympic coin in my collection is a Tennis 50p, which sometimes sells on eBay for £4.
Perhaps emboldened by the success of the Olympic collection, the Royal Mint have been firing out numerous Beatrix Potter inspired designs over the last few years.
2016: Peter Rabbit (9.7m), Jemima Puddle-Duck (2.1m), Squirrel Nutkin (5m), Mrs Tiggy-Winkle (8.8m), Beatrix Potter Portrait (6.9m) 2017: Peter Rabbit (19.9m), Benjamin Bunny (25m), Tom Kitten (9.5m), Jeremy Fisher (9.9m) 2018: Peter Rabbit (1.4m), Flopsy Bunny (1.4m), Tailor of Gloucester (3.9m), Mrs Tittlemouse (1.7m)
The most common design, by far, is Benjamin Bunny - there are 25 million of him. A different Peter Rabbit design was minted each year, peaking in 2017. Between them, Benjamin and Peter make up over 50% of all the Beatrix Potter coins in circulation. If you have a Flopsy Bunny in your pocket, that's the rarest in the collection (joint equal with a 2018 Peter Rabbit).
And then, presumably because they sold well to private collectors, the Royal Mint started featuring children's characters willy-nilly.
2018: Paddington at the Palace (5.9m), Paddington at the Station (5m), The Snowman 2019: Paddington at the Tower of London, Paddington at St Paul's Cathedral, The Gruffalo, Gruffalo and the Mouse, Wallace & Gromit, Sherlock Holmes, Stephen Hawking
Agreed, Steven Hawking isn't a children's character, Also, not all of these weird designs are destined for public circulation, most are only available as proof coins or in presentation packs. But the Royal Mint's output has a much more commercial edge these days, even if that means putting Wallace & Gromit and the Gruffalo on our currency. Watch out for those elusive Brexit coins in 2020, perhaps.
And finally, here's what I really wanted to find out from doing all this 50p research. What proportion of all the 1.3 billion 50p coins currently in circulation are of which type?
If a shopkeeper hands you a random 50p in your change, it'll probably have Britannia on it. Only one in seven 50p coins ought to have the newer Royal Shield design. One in 12 should be a Beatrix Potter, which is a lot more common than I was expecting. And one in 25 should be Olympic... except collectors have already whipped most of these out of circulation so in reality they're a lot rarer than that, so don't get your hopes up.
