E 10p: English Breakfast
The E 10p is the English Breakfast coin from the Royal Mint's 2018 A to Z, with a fried egg, bacon, sausages, baked beans and tomato halves arranged around a large letter E. Collectors look for it to fill the E space in an album of all 26 letters. It is one of the 26 A to Z 10p coins and one of the 31 10p designs struck since 1968.
E 10p value
- Circulated
- typical £3.60, range £3.40 to £4.80
- Uncirculated
- typical £3.70, range £3.60 to £3.90
Worked out from 8 published prices (4 price guides, 3 sold-price reports and 1 dealer price), each condition from its own prices, checked in September 2026.
Rarity rank 6 of 30 ranked 10p designs, rarest first (joint)
Rarity: Very rareCirculated E 10ps change hands for more than face value, and uncirculated coins from Royal Mint packaging sell for more again. The date is the other factor: the 2019 coin was struck for circulation in much smaller numbers than the 2018, so it fetches more. The raised bacon, beans and egg collect scratches and wear, and a coin where those details are still sharp and clean is the one buyers pay extra for.
E 10p mintage and rarity
With 304,000 struck for circulation, the E 10p (English Breakfast) is the joint sixth rarest of the 30 ranked 10p designs and has the joint eighth lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Very rare band, for mintages under 500,000.
The next rarer 10p is the Q 10p (Queuing), with 303,000 struck, and the next more common is the Capercaillie 10p, with 7,100,000 struck.
Its lowest circulation mintage was in 2019, with 84,000 struck.
| Year | Circulation mintage | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 220,000 | Uncirculated version on sale from 1 March 2018. |
| 2019 | 84,000 | Same reverse with the 2019 date on the obverse; uncirculated version on sale from 26 February 2019. |
How to spot an E 10p
Food fills almost the whole tails side of the E 10p: a fried egg at the top, bacon on the right, sausages and baked beans below, and a big E on the left. Nothing else is written on that side. To find the year, look at the heads side, where TEN PENCE and 2018 or 2019 follow the Queen's titles in the legend. The coin is the standard 10p size, and the breakfast is drawn the same on both dates.
E 10p design
E for English Breakfast is the first of the food letters in the Royal Mint's 2018 alphabet, and its verse pictures a full English setting the travellers up for the day. Often called a fry-up, the dish, according to the English Breakfast Society, takes in bacon, sausage and eggs with black pudding, baked beans, a grilled tomato, toast and fried bread. The Royal Mint traces the tradition to the Victorian era, when the landed gentry treated breakfast as a leisurely meal for entertaining guests. On the coin the breakfast is laid out across the field as if seen from above. A fried egg sits at the top, rashers of bacon run down the right, two tomato halves sit in the middle, and a pair of sausages and a heap of baked beans fill the lower part. A serif E stands at the left edge inside a rectangular frame. The Royal Mint credits the breakfast design to The Royal Mint Team.
It was one of the 26 coins in the A to Z set issued in 2018.
E 10p specifications
- Denomination
- 10p
- Years
- 2018 and 2019
- Type
- Commemorative
- Issue
- Issued for circulation
- Series
- A to Z
- Occasion
- The Royal Mint's Great British Coin Hunt, a Quintessentially British A to Z: the full English breakfast
- Designer
- The Royal Mint Team
- Composition
- Nickel-plated steel
- Weight
- 6.5 g
- Diameter
- 24.5 mm
- Shape
- Round
- Edge
- Milled
- Obverse
- Elizabeth II, fifth portrait by Jody Clark
E 10p questions
What is on the English Breakfast 10p?
A full English seen from above: a fried egg, rashers of bacon, sausages, baked beans and tomato halves, arranged around a large letter E. The value and date are on the other side of the coin.
Is the E 10p hard to find?
Yes, compared with an ordinary 10p, since it had only two short circulation runs, in 2018 and 2019. Most E 10ps in change carry the 2018 date.