Belfast £1 (2010)

The Belfast coin had the largest circulation issue of the four capital cities designs, so worn examples are the easiest of the set to find and carry the smallest premium. What lifts one is condition: clear detail in the ship's sails and the bell, and no knocks on the rim. Brilliant uncirculated coins in Royal Mint packs, and proof strikings, are worth more than coins from change.

With 6,205,000 struck for circulation, the Belfast £1 is the eighth rarest of the 26 ranked £1 designs and has the 118th lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Uncommon band, for mintages 2,500,000 to 9,999,999.

The next rarer £1 is the Floral Northern Ireland £1, with 5,780,000 struck, and the next more common is the Royal Shield £1, with 7,118,825 struck.

The Belfast £1 is the capital cities coin with a sailing ship in the big circle. The ship sits across the lower half, a bell sits top left, and a patterned triangle points down from the top, with BELFAST spelt out above. The small roundels below show Edinburgh's castle, London's cross and Cardiff's dragon. Turn the coin over for the 2010 date, then check the edge: it should read PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS, with no cross crosslet mint mark.

Belfast shared its 2010 release with London as the opening pair of the capital cities designs for the round pound, and Cardiff and Edinburgh completed the four a year later. The designer, Stuart Devlin, was born in Australia and made his name there in 1964 by winning the competition to design the country's first decimal coins. He gave every city the same arrangement, so the Belfast shield fills a large central circle while Edinburgh, London and Cardiff appear in miniature below. The city's arms are full of meaning. A sailing ship on waves across the lower half points to Belfast's maritime history. Above it, a downward triangle of vair, a heraldic pattern, comes from the arms of Sir Arthur Chichester, founder of the modern city. In the upper left corner a bell makes a pun on the first syllable of the name, an example of what heralds call canting arms. BELFAST arches over the circle and ONE POUND is split down the two sides. Around the edge runs the city motto, PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS, which asks what return should be made for so much.

In the capital city set it was issued in 2010 together with the London £1, and the Cardiff £1 followed in 2011.