Hylaeosaurus 50p (2020)
The Hylaeosaurus 50p completes the Royal Mint's 2020 Dinosauria Collection and shows the first armoured dinosaur ever found. Like the rest of the set, it was sold in packs and never issued into change. It is one of the nine Dinosaur 50p coins and one of the 172 50p designs struck since 1969.
Hylaeosaurus 50p value
- Uncirculated
- typical £9, range £9 to £12
Worked out from 5 published prices (2 dealer prices, 2 sold-price reports and 1 price guide), each condition from its own prices, checked in September 2026.
The Hylaeosaurus 50p never circulated, so there are no worn change finds to price; every coin began as brilliant uncirculated. What separates one example from another is packaging and handling. A sealed Royal Mint folder or sealed distributor card holds its price best, while a coin kept loose, with marks on the flat parts of the design, fetches less. Colour-printed and proof versions exist too and trade in their own right.
Hylaeosaurus 50p mintage and rarity
The Hylaeosaurus 50p was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank.
How to spot a Hylaeosaurus 50p
Read the two lines of lettering: HYLAEOSAURUS across the top and MANTELL with a date under the animal, plus Robert Nicholls's initials RN. The Iguanodon coin also carries Mantell's name, so the dinosaur's name is the check that matters, and the two dates differ as well. Flip it and you get Queen Elizabeth II by Jody Clark and the 2020 date. A colour-printed version, sold only by the Royal Mint, carries the same design.
Known varieties of the Hylaeosaurus 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:
- Colour edition: A colour-printed brilliant uncirculated edition sold only by The Royal Mint, with an issue limit of 50,000; 23,847 were made.
Hylaeosaurus 50p design
The Hylaeosaurus 50p was the third and last coin of the 2020 Dinosauria Collection, which the Royal Mint made with the Natural History Museum for its Tales of the Earth series. Hylaeosaurus was the first armoured dinosaur to be discovered, and Gideon Mantell named it eight years after Iguanodon. After Mantell's fossils were acquired by the British Museum, Richard Owen could examine the Hylaeosaurus in detail, and it helped persuade him that these animals belonged to an unrecognised group of giant reptiles, the group he called Dinosauria. Few remains of it have been found, but it is estimated to have been about five metres long, and it dates from the Early Cretaceous. Robert Nicholls designed the reverse as a homage to the life-sized Hylaeosaurus sculpture in Crystal Palace Park. HYLAEOSAURUS sits above the animal and MANTELL, with the year he named it, below, alongside RN for the designer. It reached collectors on 1 June 2020.
It was one of the three coins in the Dinosaur set issued in 2020.
Hylaeosaurus 50p specifications
- Denomination
- 50p
- Year
- 2020
- Type
- Commemorative
- Issue
- Not issued for circulation
- Series
- Dinosaurs
- Occasion
- The Dinosauria Collection (Tales of the Earth), with the Natural History Museum: Hylaeosaurus, named by Mantell in 1833
- Designer
- Robert Nicholls
- Composition
- Cupro-nickel
- Weight
- 8 g
- Diameter
- 27.3 mm
- Shape
- Seven-sided
- Edge
- Plain
- Obverse
- Elizabeth II, fifth portrait by Jody Clark
Hylaeosaurus 50p questions
Is the Hylaeosaurus 50p rare?
It was never issued for circulation, so it cannot be found in change and is not ranked against circulating 50p coins. Collectors could buy it in brilliant uncirculated packs, printed in colour, or as a silver or gold proof.
How can you tell the Hylaeosaurus 50p from the Iguanodon 50p?
Both print MANTELL under the animal, so read the name across the top. The dates differ too, because Mantell named Hylaeosaurus eight years after Iguanodon.
Is the Hylaeosaurus 50p based on the Crystal Palace dinosaur?
In part. Designer Robert Nicholls drew it as a homage to the life-sized Hylaeosaurus sculpture in Crystal Palace Park.