Athletics 50p (2011)

The Athletics coin was struck in large numbers, so condition decides most of its price. One from change with scuffed fields and a worn jumper is worth the least; a coin with crisp lines and some original shine is worth more. Brilliant uncirculated coins from the Royal Mint's Athletics coin card, or from the Athletics Field and Athletics Track coin covers, sell above circulated ones, especially unopened. The real jump in value comes with a 2009 date.

With 2,224,000 struck for circulation, the Athletics 50p is the 36th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 81st 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 50p is the Atlantic Salmon 50p, with 2,200,000 struck, and the next more common is the Suffragettes 50p, with 3,124,030 struck.

The high jump 50p stands out in change for its simple, drawn look: one athlete going over a bar in the middle of the coin, beneath the London 2012 logo with the Olympic rings. Turn it over to check the year. A 2011 date is the circulating Athletics coin. A 2009 date is the Blue Peter pack edition, which has the same reverse and is far scarcer. No other varieties of this design are recorded.

Athletics was the first sport in the London 2012 set to reach the public, and its design came from a child. Florence Jackson entered a Blue Peter competition asking young viewers to design a coin for the Games, and her high jumper came out on top. The win made her the youngest designer of United Kingdom coinage. Her coin first appeared in 2009 in a Blue Peter pack. In 2011 the Royal Mint struck it again for everyday change, alongside the designs chosen through its own public competition, which gave each Olympic and Paralympic sport a coin of its own. The artwork keeps its hand-drawn character. A lone athlete arches over the bar in the centre, the jagged 2012 logo with london written inside the first 2 and the Olympic rings inside the 0 fills the top, and 50 PENCE runs along the base. The heads side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's fourth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II with the date 2011.

It was one of the 30 coins in the Olympic set issued in 2011.