Royal Shield 2p (2008 to 2022)

Circulated shield 2ps of every date trade at face value, since the circulation years were all struck in large numbers. Collector interest sits with the set-only dates, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022, which never went into change and turn up only from brilliant uncirculated and proof sets. Of the circulation dates, 2017 had the smallest run, followed by 2013. Condition matters for set coins, and a silver coloured wrong-blank error is valued as an error rather than as a date.

With 1,537,079,520 struck for circulation, the Royal Shield 2p is the rarest of the 3 ranked 2p designs and has the 182nd lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Common band, for mintages 10,000,000 or more.

No 2p design has a lower circulation mintage. The next more common is the Prince of Wales Feathers (NEW PENCE) 2p, with 3,102,637,250 struck.

Its lowest circulation mintage was in 2017, with 16,600,000 struck.

Look for a Scottish lion rampant standing inside a border of fleurs-de-lis, with TWO PENCE curving over the top and no beads round the edge. Dates appear only on the portrait side. Every shield 2p is copper-plated steel, so it is magnetic. Circulation dates are 2008 to 2017 and 2021; the 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 coins came from sets. The 2015 date has either the Rank-Broadley or the Clark portrait. A silver coloured shield 2p may have been struck on the wrong blank.

Known varieties of the Royal Shield 2p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• Silver coloured 2p (wrong blank): A 2p struck on a blank meant for another coin, such as a 10p, comes out silver coloured. Examples are known dated from 2008 to 2018. Silver proof 2p coins from sets are not this error.

The shield 2p comes from Matthew Dent's winning entry in the Royal Mint's open competition for new reverses, a single image spread across six coins. The 2p takes the top right-hand part of the Royal Shield of Arms, most of the second quarter, which holds the lion rampant of Scotland standing inside its double border set with fleurs-de-lis. TWO PENCE curves along the top of the rim, the initials MD sit on this side, and there is no beaded border. Placed with the 1p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p, the design completes the shield. The new 2ps reached change from mid-2008, struck in copper-plated steel alongside the last of the old feathers coins, with the date now on the heads side. Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen gave way to Jody Clark's part way through 2015. After 2017 the Treasury ordered no new 2ps for circulation apart from one batch in 2021, so the 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 shield 2ps were made only for brilliant uncirculated and proof sets.