Platinum Jubilee 50p (2022)

The circulating Platinum Jubilee 50p was struck in large numbers and trades at face value in almost any condition. Any premium belongs to the brilliant uncirculated coins, and the horseback portrait edition, sold only in packs with its booklet, is worth most when the pack is still sealed and complete. Coins from the 2022 annual set are usually valued as part of the whole set, and the silver and gold proofs are separate collector pieces.

With 5,000,070 struck for circulation, the Platinum Jubilee 50p is the 44th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 101st 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 Squirrel Nutkin 50p, with 5,000,000 struck, and the next more common is the NHS 50p, with 5,001,000 struck.

The giant number seventy across the tails side, with the crowned E II R cypher inside the zero and 1952 and 2022 underneath, identifies it at once. The heads side decides which version you have. The coin found in change shows Jody Clark's fifth portrait of the Queen. If the heads side shows her on horseback, it is the brilliant uncirculated edition sold on its own, which was never issued for circulation.

Known varieties of the Platinum Jubilee 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• Equestrian obverse: The brilliant uncirculated coin sold on its own pairs the same reverse with a special obverse of the Queen on horseback; 396,460 were made. Only the fifth-portrait strike was issued for circulation.

In 2022 Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to reach a Platinum Jubilee, seventy years after her accession in 1952, and The Royal Mint marked it with the first 50p ever issued for a royal event. The reverse came from the design agency Osborne Ross, the partnership of Andrew Ross and Deborah Osborne. The number seventy fills the coin, and inside its zero sits the crowned Royal Cypher E II R, with the dates 1952 and 2022 below the cypher. The designers' initials AR and DO appear on the same side. The coin came with two different heads sides. The circulating version, which entered circulation on 7 February 2022, and the coin in the 2022 annual set carry Jody Clark's fifth portrait of the Queen. The brilliant uncirculated coin sold on its own paired the same reverse with a special obverse by John Bergdahl showing the Queen on horseback, and came with a booklet on past jubilees introduced by the historian Kate Williams. Silver proof, silver piedfort and gold proof editions were also made.