Lord Kitchener £2 (2014)
The Lord Kitchener £2 from 2014 turns the Your Country Needs You recruiting poster into a coin and opens The Royal Mint's First World War centenary series. It was struck for circulation and still turns up in change. It is the first of the five First World War £2 coins and one of the 85 £2 designs struck since 1986.
Lord Kitchener £2 value
- Circulated
- typical Face value
- Uncirculated
- typical £11, range £6 to £18
In circulated condition the Lord Kitchener £2 trades at its face value of £2.
Worked out from 15 published prices (6 price guides, 5 sold-price reports and 4 dealer prices), each condition from its own prices, checked in September 2026.
Rarity rank 33 of 44 ranked £2 designs, rarest first
Rarity: UncommonMost Lord Kitchener £2 coins went into circulation, so a worn one from change is worth face value. The premium is in the brilliant uncirculated and proof versions The Royal Mint sold in packs and sets, where an unopened pack beats a loose coin. A crisp, unworn circulation coin adds little. The one Kitchener coin that fetches a large sum is the mule with no TWO POUNDS on the obverse, so check the heads side of every one you find.
Lord Kitchener £2 mintage and rarity
With 5,720,000 struck for circulation, the Lord Kitchener £2 is the 33rd rarest of the 44 ranked £2 designs and has the 113th 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 Shakespeare Histories £2, with 5,655,000 struck, and the next more common is the Florence Nightingale £2, with 6,175,000 struck.
How to spot a Lord Kitchener £2
Kitchener's pointing finger and the words YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU make the Lord Kitchener £2 easy to pick out in change. The reverse carries no value, so turn the coin over: a standard coin has TWO POUNDS below the Queen's portrait. A coin with no denomination on either side is the rare Kitchener mule, which has its own page. The edge should read THE LAMPS ARE GOING OUT ALL OVER EUROPE.
Lord Kitchener £2 design
The Royal Mint marked the centenary of the First World War with five years of coins, following the conflict from its outbreak to the Armistice, and this was the first. Lord Kitchener became Britain's Secretary of State for War on 5 August 1914, the day after war was declared, and was the face of the drive for volunteers; the men who answered it were known as Kitchener's Army. John Bergdahl reworked the recruiting poster of him pointing at the viewer for the reverse. Kitchener, in a peaked cap, stares out and points at whoever holds the coin, above YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU, with YOU in large letters. THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-1918 curves over the top and 2014 sits at the bottom. The value is left off this side and appears as TWO POUNDS under Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen. The edge reads THE LAMPS ARE GOING OUT ALL OVER EUROPE.
The First World War set began with it, and the First World War Royal Navy £2 followed in 2015.
Lord Kitchener £2 specifications
- Denomination
- £2
- Year
- 2014
- Type
- Commemorative
- Issue
- Issued for circulation
- Series
- First World War
- Occasion
- Centenary of the outbreak of the First World War
- Designer
- John Bergdahl
- Composition
- Cupro-nickel centre, nickel-brass outer ring
- Weight
- 12 g
- Diameter
- 28.4 mm
- Shape
- Round
- Edge
- Milled, with incuse inscription THE LAMPS ARE GOING OUT ALL OVER EUROPE
- Obverse
- Elizabeth II, fourth portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley
Lord Kitchener £2 questions
Is the Lord Kitchener £2 rare?
No. It was issued into circulation in large numbers in 2014. Only the mule error is rare.
Why is there no value on the Kitchener £2?
The value is not part of the Kitchener reverse. On a normal coin TWO POUNDS appears on the heads side below the Queen's portrait; if it is missing there too, you have the mule error.
Who designed the Your Country Needs You £2?
The sculptor John Bergdahl, who based the reverse on the famous recruiting poster of Lord Kitchener pointing at the viewer.