Brunel Paddington Station £2 (2006)

In worn, everyday condition the Brunel Paddington Station £2 is worth its face value, since it was struck for circulation in large numbers. The extra money is in the brilliant uncirculated coins The Royal Mint sold in packs, above all those still sealed, including the two-coin Brunel set that holds both 2006 designs. Scratches and knocks on the roof detail lower the value of an uncirculated coin.

With 7,452,250 struck for circulation, the Brunel Paddington Station £2 is the 35th rarest of the 44 ranked £2 designs and has the 128th 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 £2 is the Florence Nightingale £2, with 6,175,000 struck, and the next more common is the Act of Union £2, with 7,545,000 struck.

The Brunel Paddington Station £2 has no portrait. Look for the framework of a station roof across the centre, the date 2006 above it and BRUNEL on the right. The other Brunel coin of that year shows the engineer himself in a top hat. Check the edge for SO MANY IRONS IN THE FIRE. On some coins the I of IN appears to be missing, so the edge seems to read SO MANY IRONS N THE FIRE; this is not regarded as a mint error.

Brunel served as Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway, and Paddington Station was the line's main terminus. When The Royal Mint marked the bicentenary of his birth in 2006, it paired a portrait coin by Rod Kelly with this design by Robert Evans, which the Mint lists as Brunel achievements. The reverse is filled by a section of the station roof and its supporting structure. The date 2006 sits above the roof, the surname BRUNEL stands to the right, and TWO POUNDS runs along the bottom of the coin. The edge carries the phrase SO MANY IRONS IN THE FIRE, an idiom for juggling many projects at once; Brunel's career of more than thirty years took in railways, bridges and stations. The obverse carries the Queen's fourth portrait, by Ian Rank-Broadley.

In the Brunel set it was issued in 2006 together with the Brunel the Man £2.