Coronation of King Charles III 50p (2023)

The circulating Coronation 50p was issued in large numbers and sells for a modest premium over face value, with bright, unmarked coins at the top of the range. The crowned portrait version is the collector coin: sold only in brilliant uncirculated packs, it is worth more, particularly when still sealed in its original packaging. The silver proof, silver piedfort and gold proof editions are separate collector pieces valued on their own.

With 5,000,000 struck for circulation, the Coronation of King Charles III 50p is the joint 41st rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the joint 98th 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 Tailor of Gloucester 50p, with 3,900,000 struck, and the next more common is the Platinum Jubilee 50p, with 5,000,070 struck.

Look for the stonework of Westminster Abbey's exterior with a crowned C R III cypher set against it. Then check the heads side. If the King is shown without a crown, you have the circulating coin, the one that turns up in change. If he wears a crown, the coin came from the brilliant uncirculated packs, which were never released into circulation. No other varieties are recorded for this design.

Known varieties of the Coronation of King Charles III 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• Crowned portrait: The brilliant uncirculated coin sold in packs from 24 April 2023 carries a unique crowned portrait of the King and was not issued for circulation; 198,456 were made. The circulation strike carries the uncrowned portrait.

King Charles III was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023, the first British coronation since his mother's in 1953, and The Royal Mint marked it with the first coronation 50p the UK had issued. Natasha Jenkins, a product designer at The Royal Mint, took the setting as her subject. The reverse shows a section of the abbey's exterior, the building where monarchs have been crowned for centuries, and sets the King's crowned Royal Cypher, C R III, against it. Her initials NJ appear on the same side. The heads side depends on the version. Coins made for circulation carry Martin Jennings' uncrowned portrait of the King, the portrait used on his other coins. The brilliant uncirculated coin sold in packs from 24 April 2023, ahead of the ceremony, carries a crowned portrait created specially for the coronation range, the first crowned coinage portrait of the King, and it was never issued for circulation. Silver proof, silver proof piedfort and gold proof editions completed the range.