Samuel Pepys £2 (2019)

With no circulation issue, every Samuel Pepys £2 started life in a Royal Mint pack, a capsule, an annual set or as a proof, and the version decides the value. The brilliant uncirculated pack is the usual starting point, and it holds its value best unopened. On any version, scratches, fingermarks or toning cut the price, and a loose coin out of its packaging sells for less than one still sealed.

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

The Samuel Pepys £2 shows a single hand holding a quill over a sheet of handwriting, with a signature and a date on the page. There is no portrait of Pepys himself. SAMUEL PEPYS DIARIST is lettered around the gold-coloured ring above two years, and the value is on the Queen's side, not this one. The edge inscription reads THE GOOD GOD PREPARE ME.

Samuel Pepys kept his diary in the years that followed the Restoration, and it remains one of the most revealing first-hand records of life in 17th-century London. Alongside his work, leisure and home life he described the coronation of Charles II, the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. He was also an important figure in the history of the Royal Navy. On 31 May he wrote his final entry, afraid that he was losing his sight, and The Royal Mint marked the 350th anniversary of that day in 2019. The reverse is by Gary Breeze, who also designed the Captain Cook £2 coins, and was produced with help from the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. It shows a hand holding a feathered quill over the last page of the diary, which carries his signature and the date of that final entry. SAMUEL PEPYS DIARIST runs around the ring with the anniversary years below. The edge reads THE GOOD GOD PREPARE ME.