Commonwealth Games Glasgow 50p (2014)

The Glasgow coin went into circulation in large numbers, so worn examples from change carry only a modest premium and condition makes most of the difference. A coin with a clear saltire and sharp athletes is worth more than one with flattened detail. Brilliant uncirculated coins from the 2014 packs and annual set are priced well above circulated ones. The silver proof, gold proof and silver piedfort are separate collector pieces valued on their own.

With 6,500,000 struck for circulation, the Commonwealth Games Glasgow 50p is the 52nd rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 120th lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Uncommon band, for mintages 2,500,000 to 9,999,999.

The next rarer 50p is the Team GB 50p, with 6,400,000 struck, and the next more common is the Battle of Hastings 50p, with 6,700,000 struck.

Look for the saltire running corner to corner across the reverse, with a runner on one side and a cyclist on the other. The inscription XX COMMONWEALTH GAMES GLASGOW 2014 confirms it, and the year is on this side rather than the heads side. The obverse shows the older, fourth portrait of the Queen with FIFTY PENCE, which helps tell it apart from the 2022 Birmingham coin at a glance. No varieties are recorded.

Glasgow hosted the XX Commonwealth Games from 23 July to 3 August 2014, and The Royal Mint marked the event with a circulating 50p. The design is by Alex Loudon with Dan Flashman, and it combines sport with a Scottish emblem: the diagonal cross of St Andrew, the saltire on Scotland's flag, cuts across the coin and separates two fast-moving silhouettes, a sprinter and a cyclist. The lettering reads XX COMMONWEALTH GAMES GLASGOW 2014, set over several lines, and the initials AL are on the reverse. The date is part of that reverse lettering, while the heads side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's fourth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, wearing the tiara known as Girls of Great Britain and Ireland, with the words FIFTY PENCE. Alongside the circulation coin, the design appeared in the 2014 annual brilliant uncirculated set and was also struck in silver proof, gold proof and silver piedfort versions.

The Commonwealth Games set began with it, and the Commonwealth Games Birmingham 50p followed in 2022.