Iguanodon 50p (2020)
The Iguanodon 50p is the second coin in the 2020 Dinosauria Collection from the Royal Mint and the Natural History Museum. It honours Gideon Mantell's plant-eating dinosaur and was sold only in collector packs, so it is not a coin you find in change. It is one of the nine Dinosaur 50p coins and one of the 172 50p designs struck since 1969.
Iguanodon 50p value
- Uncirculated
- typical £10, range £7 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.
Condition is the main thing that moves an Iguanodon 50p. It was only ever sold as a brilliant uncirculated coin, whether in the Royal Mint's folder of dinosaur facts, a distributor card or a capsule, and buyers pay most for one that has never left that packaging. Fingerprints, toning or bag marks on a loose coin pull the price down. The Royal Mint's colour-printed edition is a different product, as are the silver and gold proofs, and each is valued apart from the standard coin.
Iguanodon 50p mintage and rarity
The Iguanodon 50p was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank.
How to spot an Iguanodon 50p
Start with the name across the top. The Hylaeosaurus coin from the same year also prints MANTELL under its animal, with a different year, so IGUANODON above the reconstruction is what settles it. RN on the design marks Robert Nicholls as the artist. Turn it over for Jody Clark's portrait of the Queen dated 2020. The Royal Mint also sold a colour-printed edition of the same design.
Known varieties of the Iguanodon 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; 26,470 were made.
Iguanodon 50p design
The Iguanodon 50p followed the Megalosaurus as the second release in the Royal Mint's 2020 Dinosauria Collection, part of the Tales of the Earth series produced with the Natural History Museum. The discovery behind it began when Mary Mantell noticed a large tooth at a roadside near Lewes in Sussex. Her husband, Dr Gideon Mantell, saw that it looked like the tooth of an iguana and, three years later, named the animal Iguanodon. Nine years after that, a blast at a quarry near Maidstone exposed parts of a skeleton, which finally let Mantell work out how the whole animal might have looked. Iguanodon was a large herbivore with a big spike on each thumb, possibly used for defence. Richard Owen, who coined the word Dinosauria and went on to found the Natural History Museum, made Iguanodon one of his three founding examples. Robert Nicholls drew the reconstruction on the reverse, with IGUANODON above, MANTELL and the year of naming below, and his initials RN. It was released on 16 March 2020.
It was one of the three coins in the Dinosaur set issued in 2020.
Iguanodon 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: Iguanodon, named by Mantell in 1825
- 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
Iguanodon 50p questions
Is the Iguanodon 50p in circulation?
No. The Royal Mint never struck it for everyday use; it reached buyers in brilliant uncirculated packs and as colour, silver proof and gold proof editions.
Why is Mantell named on the Iguanodon 50p?
Gideon Mantell named Iguanodon three years after his wife Mary found one of its teeth near Lewes in Sussex. The year printed beside his name is the year he named it.
Which dinosaur 50p coins were issued in 2020?
Three, forming the Dinosauria Collection: Megalosaurus in February, Iguanodon in March and Hylaeosaurus in June.