H 10p: Houses of Parliament

Because so much of the H 10p is open field, scratches and bag marks show clearly, and they pull the price down. A coin with a clean, bright field and a sharp portcullis grid is worth more than a worn one. Between the two dates, 2019 is the scarcer and normally the dearer, having been struck for circulation in much smaller numbers. A coin bought uncirculated from the Royal Mint, still in its card or pouch, is worth more than one from change.

With 304,000 struck for circulation, the H 10p (Houses of Parliament) 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.

The H 10p has a simple layout: a capital H at the top and a crowned portcullis with hanging chains below it, on an otherwise open field. There is no value or date on that side. The date is struck on the heads side together with TEN PENCE, after the Queen's Latin titles, and reads 2018 or 2019. Both years share the same design, and the coin is a normal 10p in size and colour.

The Houses of Parliament take H in the Royal Mint's Great British Coin Hunt, the 2018 series of 26 letter 10ps, and the letter's verse invites the reader in to hear the arguments. Both the Commons and the Lords sit there, and the Royal Mint describes it as the oldest royal palace in London, used without a break since before the middle of the 11th century. The original building was badly damaged by fire in the 1830s and took some 30 years to rebuild. Its best-known part is the clock tower that houses Big Ben, while the Union flag flies from Victoria Tower whenever Parliament is sitting. Rather than the building, the coin shows Parliament's official badge: a crowned portcullis with chains hanging from each side, placed in the lower half of the design. A plain serif H stands above it, and the rest of the field is left empty. The Royal Mint Team designed it.

It was one of the 26 coins in the A to Z set issued in 2018.