Basketball 50p (2011)

Basketball sits around the middle of the London 2012 set for numbers struck, so the price comes down to condition. A coin where the dimpled texture is still crisp around the players is worth more than one worn smooth, and deep scratches across the ball show badly. Packaged examples, in the Basketball coin card or the matching coin cover, sell above circulated coins, most of all while still sealed.

With 1,748,000 struck for circulation, the Basketball 50p is the nineteenth rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 64th 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 Table Tennis 50p, with 1,737,500 struck, and the next more common is the Sailing 50p, with 1,749,500 struck.

Look for a coin whose whole background is the dimpled texture of a basketball, with seam lines curving behind the players. Four figures stand in front of it: a pair challenging on the left, one dribbling between his legs in the centre and a shooter in mid-jump on the right. Above them is the London 2012 emblem, and the heads side is dated 2011. There are no recorded varieties.

Sarah Payne heard about the London 2012 coin competition from her nan, who spotted it in the local paper and rang to tell her. She worked through the list of sports the Royal Mint published for entrants, with links explaining each one, and when she reached basketball she saw a chance to capture its movement. Her idea was to make the ball itself the background, so the sport would be obvious without the word basketball appearing on the coin. The reverse is filled edge to edge by the textured surface of a basketball, its curved seams and dimpled dots showing behind four players. On the left two of them contend for the ball, in the middle one dribbles it between his legs, and on the right another leaps as if shooting at a basket that is off the coin. Payne's nan died before the shortlist was announced, but had already seen the design she prompted her granddaughter to draw. The coin was struck for circulation with a 2011 date.

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