Britannia (FIFTY PENCE, large) 50p (1982 to 1997)

Circulated coins from 1982, 1983 and 1985 are plentiful, so they sell for modest prices and wear sets the difference between them. The interest lies in the set-only dates. A large 50p dated 1984 or 1986 to 1997 never went into general circulation, and uncirculated examples of those years, especially in their original Royal Mint set or pack, sell for more. Coins with scratches, dents or heavy rim wear are worth little, because a large 50p can no longer be spent.

With 114,819,007 struck for circulation, the Britannia (FIFTY PENCE, large) 50p is the 78th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 166th lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Common band, for mintages 10,000,000 or more.

The next rarer 50p is the EEC Hands 50p, with 89,775,000 struck, and the next more common is the Royal Shield 50p, with 353,590,405 struck.

Its lowest circulation mintage was in 1985, with 682,103 struck.

It is the same large size as the first 50p, so the quickest check is the wording above Britannia: FIFTY PENCE marks this version, NEW PENCE the earlier one. Only 1982, 1983 and 1985 were struck for change. A large FIFTY PENCE coin dated 1984, or any year from 1986 to 1997, came from a proof or brilliant uncirculated set, and none is dated 1994. A 1997 date can be either size: the large one is a set coin, the small one is the common circulation coin.

By 1982 decimal coins had been in use for over a decade, and the word NEW was dropped from the coinage. On the 50p that meant a one-word change to Christopher Ironside's reverse. Britannia, her lion and the numeral 50 are unchanged, but the legend above her now reads FIFTY PENCE. Britannia has a long history on British money: she was revived on copper halfpence and farthings under Charles II in the seventeenth century and stayed on at least one denomination until the 50p was redesigned in 2008. The coin kept the original size and weight. Its heads side changed during the run, with Arnold Machin's portrait of the Queen used until 1984 and Raphael Maklouf's portrait, showing her in a diadem, from 1985. The large format ended when the smaller 50p arrived in 1997, and these coins were demonetised in 1998.