Peter Rabbit 50p (2016)

Interest in this coin comes from two groups: Beatrix Potter set collectors and people collecting every Peter Rabbit year. Its circulation mintage was one of the higher ones in the series, so worn coins from change are plentiful and sell for modest sums, while well-preserved coins with crisp whiskers command more. Brilliant uncirculated coins from Royal Mint packs are priced clearly above circulated ones. The coloured silver and gold proofs are valued as separate collector coins.

With 9,700,000 struck for circulation, the Peter Rabbit 50p is the 67th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 144th 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 Queen Elizabeth II Memorial 50p, with 9,600,000 struck, and the next more common is the Jeremy Fisher 50p, with 9,900,000 struck.

This is the only Peter Rabbit 50p that shows him in close-up, with his whiskers prominent and the words PETER RABBIT divided by his figure. Every later Peter Rabbit 50p, from 2017 to 2020, shows him in his jacket with a small TM mark, and the 2017 coin spells out THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT. Check for the 2016 date on the heads side to be sure.

Peter Rabbit got his first 50p of his own in 2016, as the second release in The Royal Mint's series marking a century and a half since Beatrix Potter's birth. The anniversary coin that came just before it already showed him small, below Potter's name, but here he fills the design. Emma Noble based the reverse on Potter's original illustration and framed the rabbit in close-up, so his face and long whiskers are the main feature. His figure splits the words PETER RABBIT, which follow the edge of the coin, and Noble's initials en are on the reverse too. The obverse carries the value, the date and Jody Clark's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. The same character returned on a new 50p every year up to 2020, each time in a new design. For collectors, this first design was also made as a coloured silver proof and as a gold proof.

It was one of the five coins in the Beatrix Potter set issued in 2016.