European Union 50p (1998)

The EU 50p was issued for circulation and is still legal tender, so a worn coin from change sells for only a modest premium. Condition makes the real difference. Uncirculated coins, including those from the 1998 European Union brilliant uncirculated pack and the 1998 Royal Mint year set, fetch more than circulated ones, and a coin still in its original pack is worth more than a loose one. Scratches and knocks on the plain field around the stars pull a circulated coin's price down.

With 5,043,000 struck for circulation, the European Union 50p is the 47th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 105th 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 NHS 50p, with 5,001,000 struck, and the next more common is the Benjamin Britten 50p, with 5,300,000 struck.

Twelve stars in the upper part of the coin and the line 1973 EU 1998 beneath them identify it at a glance. It is the small modern size, the same as the 50ps in your change, with Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait on the heads side. The date line on the tails side is the easiest check, because the 1973 and 1992 European 50ps show a ring of hands and a conference table instead.

Known varieties of the European Union 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• 2009 anniversary set reissue: Struck again dated 2009, with Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait, for the 16-coin set issued in October 2009 to mark 40 years of the 50p, in cupro-nickel and as silver proof, gold proof and gold piedfort. Not issued for circulation.

Britain entered the European Economic Community in 1973, and in the first six months of 1998 it held the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the European Union. The Royal Mint marked both with this 50p, which spells out the anniversary in its lettering: a line reading 1973 EU 1998, with the letters EU between the year of entry and the year of the twenty-fifth anniversary. Above that line John Mills set twelve stars in a celebratory arrangement, like the stars of the European flag, and beneath it sits the value 50 PENCE. His initials JWM are also on this side. Mills, a sculptor, had designed the D-Day 50p four years earlier. This was one of two commemorative 50ps issued in 1998, the other being the NHS anniversary coin, and the pair were the first commemoratives struck in the smaller 50p size introduced in 1997. Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen, first used that year, is on the heads side.