Decimal Day 50p (2021)

Every Decimal Day 50p was sold in brilliant uncirculated quality, so there is no circulated price. Value comes down to the version and the packaging. The Machin portrait coin is a distinct issue, priced apart from the standard fifth-portrait coin, and a coin still in its original wallet or sealed capsule is worth more than a loose one with handling marks. The silver and gold proofs and piedforts are collector pieces valued on their own.

The Decimal Day 50p was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank.

Look for a ring of old coins around the edge: you should be able to pick out the wren from the farthing and Britannia's head from the penny, among others. The middle holds a small seven-sided outline with 1971, DECIMAL and DAY inside it. Check the heads side too. Most coins show Jody Clark's fifth portrait, but some carry Arnold Machin's older portrait of the Queen, a separate version sold only in brilliant uncirculated quality. Neither version went into circulation.

Known varieties of the Decimal Day 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• Machin portrait edition: A brilliant uncirculated edition struck with Arnold Machin's second portrait of the Queen on the obverse, sold separately from the fifth-portrait coin.

On 15 February 1971 the UK left behind the centuries-old system of pounds, shillings and pence for a decimal currency with a hundred new pence to the pound. The change took years of planning, a large public information campaign and a new factory with new machinery to strike the coins. For the 50th anniversary in 2021, Dominique Evans designed a 50p that looks back at the coins that disappeared. Overlapping pre-decimal pieces fill the outer part of the design: the farthing with its wren, the halfpenny, the penny with Britannia's head, the threepence, the sixpence, the shilling and the two shillings. At the centre, inside a seven-sided outline of the 50p itself, the lettering reads 1971, DECIMAL, DAY, and Evans's initials DME are on the same side. The standard coin carries Jody Clark's fifth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, and a second brilliant uncirculated version paired the reverse with Arnold Machin's portrait, the one used on the first decimal coins. The coin was sold in a fold-out wallet of Decimal Day facts, in capsules and in other packs, alongside silver proof, silver piedfort, gold proof and gold piedfort editions.