Jane Austen £2 (2017)

No Jane Austen £2 coins were issued for change, so the market is made up entirely of coins sold by The Royal Mint and its distributors. A complete, unopened Royal Mint presentation folder, with its information about Austen and the coin, is what most buyers want. A loose coin, or one with fingerprints, marks or toning from handling, is worth less. The silver and gold proofs form a separate, more expensive market.

The Jane Austen £2 was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank.

The Jane Austen £2 shows a woman's silhouette in profile inside an oval locket, with a looping signature running over it. The gold-coloured ring has fine vertical stripes behind the lettering: JANE AUSTEN at the upper left, two years at the upper right and TWO POUNDS at the bottom. Jody Clark's portrait of the Queen, dated 2017, is on the other side.

Jane Austen's novels give a picture of English life in the late 1700s and early 1800s. They were published anonymously and brought her little attention while she lived, but their stories of love and realism were unusual for the time, and two centuries after her death she is counted among the most important writers of her age. For the bicentenary in 2017, The Royal Mint graphic designer Dominique Evans put Austen herself at the heart of the coin, in a design approved by the Austen scholar Professor John Mullan. A Regency-style silhouette bust faces right inside a locket-like frame with a loop at the top, with her signature written across it. The outer ring is striped, with JANE AUSTEN at the upper left, the anniversary years at the upper right and TWO POUNDS at the bottom. The edge borrows a line from Northanger Abbey: THERE IS NO DOING WITHOUT MONEY.