Rugby World Cup £2 (1999)

Circulated Rugby World Cup coins trade at face value, because so many went into change. Collectors pay more for the brilliant uncirculated coin, sold in its own Royal Mint pack and in sets, and a pack that has never been opened is worth the most. On a loose coin, the goalposts on the outer ring and the dotted stands of the stadium are where wear shows first.

With 4,933,000 struck for circulation, the Rugby World Cup £2 is the 28th rarest of the 44 ranked £2 designs and has the 97th 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 Tragedies £2, with 4,615,000 struck, and the next more common is the Trevithick Steam Locomotive £2, with 5,004,500 struck.

Hold the coin with the date at the top: goalposts run all the way round the gold-coloured outer ring, and the silver centre shows a stadium from above with a rugby ball across it. TWO POUNDS sits at the bottom of the ring. The edge should read RUGBY WORLD CUP 1999. Technology £2 coins were also dated 1999, so check the design rather than the date alone. No varieties are recorded for this coin.

Wales hosted the 1999 Rugby World Cup, with matches shared across England, France, Scotland and Ireland and the newly built Millennium Stadium in Cardiff as the main venue. Australia won the trophy, and Wales went out in the quarter-finals. The Royal Mint's coin for the tournament was the first commemorative £2 made in the two-colour format. Ron Dutton's design looks down on a rugby stadium from above, with its stands drawn as dotted panels and a rugby ball laid across the middle. Goalposts run round the outer ring, separating the date 1999 at the top from TWO POUNDS at the bottom. The edge is lettered RUGBY WORLD CUP 1999, and Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is on the obverse. As well as the circulation coin, brilliant uncirculated versions went on sale from June 1999 in a Royal Mint pack, in annual and baby gift sets, and in coin covers.