Charles Dickens £2 (2012)

The Dickens £2 went into circulation in large numbers, so a worn coin from change trades at face value. It only earns more if it is close to unworn, with the small lettering of the titles still sharp. The collector premium belongs to the brilliant uncirculated coin, sold in The Royal Mint's own Charles Dickens pack and in sets and cards, and it does best with its packaging intact.

With 8,190,000 struck for circulation, the Charles Dickens £2 is the 38th rarest of the 44 ranked £2 designs and has the 132nd 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 Brunel the Man £2, with 7,928,250 struck, and the next more common is the Commonwealth Games 1986 £2, with 8,212,184 struck.

Look for a head in profile, facing left, that is made of words rather than lines. Tilt the Charles Dickens £2 to the light and you will pick out OLIVER TWIST, BLEAK HOUSE and other titles inside it. The back of the head spills over into the gold-coloured ring on the right, and CHARLES DICKENS with two dates runs up the left-hand side. There is no value on this side; TWO POUNDS is on the Queen's side. The edge reads SOMETHING WILL TURN UP.

The Royal Mint marked the 200th anniversary of his birth with this £2 in 2012. Matthew Dent's reverse has no drawn portrait at all. Instead the outline of Dickens's head, facing left, is made up of the titles of his works, with the more famous ones given more space: OLIVER TWIST, BLEAK HOUSE, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, DAVID COPPERFIELD, LITTLE DORRIT and DOMBEY AND SON can all be read. The back of the head breaks out of the silver-coloured centre into the outer ring on the right. His name, between his birth and death years, runs up the left side of the ring, and the value is left off this face. TWO POUNDS appears instead with Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen, and the milled edge reads SOMETHING WILL TURN UP.