National Gallery £2 (2024)

No National Gallery £2 was struck for circulation, so values come from brilliant uncirculated coins and proofs. It was sold in a Royal Mint pack that explores the gallery's history and collection, in the 2024 annual set, and loose in capsules and certified cards, and an unopened pack sells ahead of a loose coin. On a loose coin, check the fine columns and the edges of the dome for marks. Silver proof, silver piedfort, gold proof and a small gold coin in the same design are priced separately.

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

The National Gallery £2 shows a classical building head-on: a dome above a row of columns, with the dome breaking into the yellow ring at the top and the columns reaching it at the bottom. The inscription around the top of the ring celebrates the bicentenary and ends THE NATIONAL GALLERY, and no date appears on the reverse. The Latin edge inscription begins MAIORVM GLORIA, and King Charles III is on the obverse.

The National Gallery began when Parliament bought a small group of paintings from the financier John Julius Angerstein, and it has aimed to make art accessible to everyone from the start. Its collection has since grown to span paintings from the 13th century onwards, including British artists such as William Hogarth and John Constable alongside Rembrandt, Monet and Vincent van Gogh. For the bicentenary in 2024, The Royal Mint chose Edwina Ellis, a designer, engraver and printmaker whose earlier coins include the four Bridges £1 designs, the London Underground roundel £2 and the Stephen Hawking 50p. Her reverse centres on the gallery's Trafalgar Square front, with the dome rising into the outer ring at the top and the columns of the portico running down into it at the bottom. The anniversary wording arches over the building in a semicircle, and there are no dates or denomination on the reverse. The edge carries MAIORVM GLORIA POSTERIS LVMEN EST, a Latin motto inscribed in the gallery's Wilkins Building, meaning the glory of our ancestors is a light to our descendants. The coin appeared first in the 2024 annual coin set before its own release.