Britannia £2 (2015 to 2022)

The year matters more than anything else. Britannia £2 coins went into circulation in 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2022, and 2015, the first year, had by far the smallest issue of the four. Coins dated 2017 to 2020 were not struck for circulation at all and come only from brilliant uncirculated sets, so a coin with one of those dates did not come from change. Within any year, condition decides the rest: a worn coin from circulation is worth least, and brilliant uncirculated coins in capsules or sets the most.

With 13,650,000 struck for circulation, the Britannia £2 is the 43rd rarest of the 44 ranked £2 designs and has the 152nd lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Common band, for mintages 10,000,000 or more.

The next rarer £2 is the St Paul's Cathedral £2, with 10,191,000 struck, and the next more common is the Technology £2, with 416,145,838 struck.

Its lowest circulation mintage was in 2015, with 650,000 struck.

Britannia in a Corinthian helmet, looking left, with a trident running from bottom left to top right, identifies the Britannia £2 at a glance. The trident's prongs cross into the gold-coloured ring, and the shield with Union flag crosses sits bottom right beside the initials A.D. Because the reverse is undated, turn the coin over to read the year under the Queen's portrait. Coins dated 2015 are also worth checking for the inverted effigy error, where her head sits almost upside down.

Britannia first appeared on a farthing in the reign of Charles II and went on to feature on British coins in one form or another for more than three centuries, until she was dropped from the 50p in 2008. In 2015 she returned on the £2 coin, the highest denomination in everyday use, replacing the concentric Technology design that had been on the coin since it was introduced in 1997. The sculptor Antony Dufort set out to show Britannia for a modern age. His half-length figure faces left in a Corinthian helmet, with her shield, marked with the crosses of the Union flag, at the lower right. Her trident cuts diagonally across the coin and its prongs break into the outer ring at the top right. TWO POUNDS follows the upper-left curve of the rim and his initials, A.D, sit beside the shield. There is no date on this side. The new reverse was among the first UK coins paired with Jody Clark's fifth portrait of the Queen, which carries the year. The edge reads QUATUOR MARIA VINDICO.