Captain Cook, 1768 departure £2 (2018)

Every 2018 Captain Cook £2 left The Royal Mint as a brilliant uncirculated coin in a pack or set, so there is no worn, face value version to compare against. Condition and packaging decide the price. A coin still in its original puzzle-style card, which was designed to link with the 2019 and 2020 packs, sells for more than a loose coin. Fingerprints, toning or marks across the ship and map reduce the value, as does a creased or opened pack.

The Captain Cook, 1768 departure £2 was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank.

The 2018 Captain Cook £2 never went into change, so expect to find it in a pack or a collection rather than a purse. It is the coin with the stern of Endeavour, ensign flying, set over a map of Plymouth Sound, and it is the only one of the three with Cook's handwritten signature under the ship. The anniversary dates ending in 2018 sit at the top of the outer ring. The edge is lettered OCEANI INVESTIGATOR ACERRIMVS, as on the two later Cook coins.

This coin marks the 250th anniversary of the August day Captain James Cook sailed from Plymouth aboard HM Bark Endeavour, at the start of a voyage that would last three years. His orders were to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti and to record the people, places and plants he found. It was the first of his three great voyages, over which he sailed round the world twice. The Royal Mint chose the artist Gary Breeze to tell the story across three £2 coins, one a year, each adding a piece to a single design. The 2018 piece shows the stern and hull of Endeavour with her ensign flying as she leaves harbour over a chart of Plymouth Sound. Cook's signature runs beneath the ship and a large anniversary numeral stands to the right. CAPTAIN JAMES COOK and the anniversary dates circle the outer ring. Jody Clark's fifth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is on the obverse.

The Captain Cook set began with it, and the Captain Cook, 1769 Tahiti £2 followed in 2019.