NHS 50p (1998)

The NHS 50p was issued for circulation and is still legal tender, and circulated coins sell for a modest premium over face value. Condition decides most of the price: a coin with sharp radiating lines, clear hands and crisp lettering around the border sells for more than a worn one. Uncirculated examples from the 1998 NHS brilliant uncirculated pack command more again, especially when the pack is intact.

With 5,001,000 struck for circulation, the NHS 50p is the joint 45th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the joint 102nd 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 Platinum Jubilee 50p, with 5,000,070 struck, and the next more common is the European Union 50p, with 5,043,000 struck.

Look for two hands at the centre with lines fanning out behind them, and the letters NHS repeated around the rim. FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY above the hands confirms it. It is the same size as today's 50p and carries the date 1998 on the heads side. The only other commemorative 50p of that year shows twelve stars, so there is little to confuse it with.

Known varieties of the NHS 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.

The National Health Service was founded in 1948, when the health secretary Aneurin Bevan set up a service available to everyone and paid for entirely from taxation. Its fiftieth anniversary in 1998 was marked with this 50p by David Cornell, who also designed the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial crown. Cornell put a pair of hands at the centre of the reverse, with lines radiating outwards behind them like rays of light, a tribute to the hope the health service brought when it began. FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY is written above the hands and 50 PENCE below, with Cornell's initials DC, while the letters NHS repeat five times around the outer border. The NHS coin shared its year with the EU Presidency 50p, and between them they were the first commemorative designs on the smaller 50p that had replaced the large one a year earlier. The Queen's portrait on the heads side is by Ian Rank-Broadley.