United Nations £2 (1995)

Circulated United Nations £2 coins trade above face value, since the single-metal £2 issues were never common in change. Wear shows first on the flags and the emblem, the busiest parts of the design, so compare their detail with a sharp example before deciding on a grade. Rim knocks and scratches on the open field to the lower left also count against a coin. Brilliant uncirculated coins from The Royal Mint's anniversary pack are the most wanted, particularly in a pack that has never been opened.

With 1,668,575 struck for circulation, the United Nations £2 is the sixteenth rarest of the 44 ranked £2 designs and has the 56th lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Scarce band, for mintages 1,000,000 to 2,499,999.

The next rarer £2 is the Great Fire of London £2, with 1,625,000 struck, and the next more common is the London Underground Train £2, with 1,690,000 struck.

A fan of flags spreading up and to the left from an emblem at the lower right marks out the United Nations £2 coin. The words NATIONS UNITED FOR PEACE arch over the top, and 1945-1995 runs along the bottom. The edge is milled but has no lettering. It is a single-metal coin with the Maklouf portrait, and it should not be mixed up with the other 1995 £2 coin, which shows a dove and has no words on the tails side.

The United Nations was set up in 1945, in the aftermath of the Second World War, to keep the peace between countries and to work for social progress. In 1995 The Royal Mint marked the organisation's fiftieth anniversary with this £2 coin, one of two £2 coins issued that year alongside the Dove of Peace. Michael Rizzello designed the reverse. He placed the UN's fiftieth anniversary symbol at the lower right and fanned a pattern of flags out from it towards the upper left. NATIONS UNITED FOR PEACE curves around the top, with a small dot at each end, and the years 1945-1995, joined by a dash, sit at the bottom. The coin is single-metal nickel-brass with a milled edge that has no lettering, and Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is on the obverse.