RAF Badge £2 (2018)

Every RAF Badge £2 was made for collectors, in brilliant uncirculated packs and proof editions, so there are no circulation coins to price against. More were sold than of any of the four aircraft designs, and it is usually the cheapest coin of the set to buy. Condition still matters: a coin with fingerprints or marks on the eagle is worth less than one kept in its sealed pack.

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

This is the only coin of the RAF centenary five without an aircraft on it. Look for an eagle with outspread wings in front of a ring lettered PER ARDUA AD ASTRA, topped by a crown, and the long legend THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE around the outside. The same Latin motto is repeated on the edge. Since it was never issued for circulation, an example found in change will have been spent from a collector pack.

The Royal Air Force was formed in 1918, during the First World War, as the world's first independent air force. For the centenary in 2018 The Royal Mint struck five £2 designs, and this first one, by Rhys Morgan, was issued in the 2018 annual coin set on New Year's Day. It shows the service's own emblem rather than an aircraft. An eagle flies in front of a ring inscribed with the motto PER ARDUA AD ASTRA, Latin for through adversity to the stars, and the Imperial Crown sits on top. The eagle's wings reach out towards the brass outer ring, where THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE runs around the coin with 1918 - 2018 at the bottom. The motto appears a second time on the edge, and Jody Clark's fifth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is on the obverse. Each of the four coins that followed showed a different aircraft, all drawn by the brothers Richard and Neil Talbot.

It was one of the five coins in the RAF centenary set issued in 2018.