Technology £2 (1997 to 2015)

In circulated condition the Technology £2 trades at face value in every year, because so many were made across almost two decades. Collectors pay more for brilliant uncirculated coins from Royal Mint packs and annual sets, and the date matters there. Among circulation years, 2005 and 2012 had the smallest mintages of the run. A genuine misaligned centre is a real minting fault and the error collectors look for.

With 416,145,838 struck for circulation, the Technology £2 is the 44th rarest of the 44 ranked £2 designs and has the 176th lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Common band, for mintages 10,000,000 or more.

No £2 design has a higher circulation mintage. The next rarer is the Britannia £2, with 13,650,000 struck.

Its lowest circulation mintage was in 2005, with 3,837,250 struck.

Look for rings within rings: a chain of gear wheels around the centre, busy patterns spreading outwards, and TWO POUNDS above with the year below on the gold-coloured outer ring. The edge reads STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS. A 1997 coin has the Maklouf portrait of the Queen, while later years show Rank-Broadley's. Coins whose silver centre was struck out of line, so that the inner metal spills into the outer ring, are a recorded misaligned-centre variety.

Known varieties of the Technology £2, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• Misaligned centre: The centre was out of line when the coin was struck, so the inner metal spills into the outer ring.

After a review of the UK's coins decided that a £2 was needed for everyday use, The Royal Mint produced a new two-colour coin, the first bimetallic coin made for circulation in Britain since the tin farthings of the late seventeenth century. Coins dated 1997 went into circulation in June 1998. Bruce Rushin won a public competition with his reverse, an abstract design of four concentric rings that trace technological progress from the Iron Age through the Industrial Revolution and the computer age to the Internet. One ring is a chain of nineteen interlocking gear wheels. TWO POUNDS runs around the top of the outer ring and the year of issue around the bottom. The edge is lettered STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS. The centre is cupro-nickel and the outer ring nickel-brass. Coins dated 1997 carry Raphael Maklouf's portrait of the Queen, and Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait took over from 1998. The design ran until 2015, the year the new Britannia £2 appeared.