Diplodocus 50p (2024)
The Diplodocus 50p rounds off the Royal Mint's 2024 Iconic Specimens collection, a trio of dinosaur 50p coins made with the Natural History Museum. It was sold only to collectors and never struck for circulation. It is one of the nine Dinosaur 50p coins and one of the 172 50p designs struck since 1969.
Diplodocus 50p value
- Uncirculated
- typical £10, range £7 to £12
Worked out from 6 published prices (3 dealer prices, 2 sold-price reports and 1 price guide), each condition from its own prices, checked in September 2026.
Every Diplodocus 50p was made to collector standard, so condition and packaging set its price. A coin still in the Royal Mint pack, or in a sealed certified pack from a dealer, sells above a loose coin with fingerprints or scuffs on the long neck and fields. The Royal Mint also sold a colour-printed edition and silver and gold proofs, and these are priced as different products from the standard brilliant uncirculated coin.
Diplodocus 50p mintage and rarity
The Diplodocus 50p was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank.
How to spot a Diplodocus 50p
The long neck and tail give it away: the Diplodocus winds across the design, and a skeleton in front underlines its length. Read DIPLODOCUS above the animal and JURASSIC below; the Stegosaurus coin shares JURASSIC but has plates and a spiked tail instead of a long neck. King Charles III by Martin Jennings is on the other side. A colour-printed edition was sold alongside the standard coin.
Known varieties of the Diplodocus 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:
- Colour edition: A colour-printed brilliant uncirculated edition sold only by The Royal Mint.
Diplodocus 50p design
The Diplodocus 50p brought the Iconic Specimens collection to a close, after the Tyrannosaurus and Stegosaurus, within the Royal Mint's Tales of the Earth series with the Natural History Museum. Diplodocus was a plant-eating sauropod of the Late Jurassic and one of the longest dinosaurs ever to live. The coin's pack tells the story of Dippy, the museum's famous Diplodocus replica. Robert Nicholls, who has drawn every coin in the series, produced the artwork with advice from Paul Barrett, a professor at the museum. He shows the whole animal, from its winding neck to its snaking tail, and places a Diplodocus skeleton in the foreground to stress just how long it was. DIPLODOCUS is lettered above and JURASSIC below, with the designer's initials RN. The obverse carries Martin Jennings's portrait of King Charles III, the same portrait used across the 2024 dinosaur coins.
It was one of the three coins in the Dinosaur set issued in 2024.
Diplodocus 50p specifications
- Denomination
- 50p
- Year
- 2024
- Type
- Commemorative
- Issue
- Not issued for circulation
- Series
- Dinosaurs
- Occasion
- Iconic Specimens collection (Tales of the Earth), with the Natural History Museum: Diplodocus
- Designer
- Robert Nicholls
- Composition
- Cupro-nickel
- Weight
- 8 g
- Diameter
- 27.3 mm
- Shape
- Seven-sided
- Edge
- Plain
- Obverse
- Charles III, first portrait by Martin Jennings
Diplodocus 50p questions
Is the Diplodocus the last coin in the Iconic Specimens set?
Yes. It followed the Tyrannosaurus and the Stegosaurus as the third and final coin of the 2024 collection.
Who is Dippy, mentioned with the Diplodocus 50p?
Dippy is the Natural History Museum's Diplodocus replica. The Royal Mint's pack for the coin tells its story.
What does JURASSIC mean on the Diplodocus 50p?
It names the period Diplodocus lived in, the Late Jurassic. The Stegosaurus coin carries the same word, while the Tyrannosaurus reads CRETACEOUS.