Representation of the People Act 50p (2018)

This 50p went into circulation in large numbers and turns up easily in change, so a circulated coin trades at face value. Any premium sits with the collector versions: the brilliant uncirculated pack, the coin from the 2018 annual set and the proof, with sealed, undamaged packaging worth more than loose coins. Among coins from change, only a bright, unworn example with sharp faces on the five voters draws any interest, and no errors or varieties are known to add value.

With 9,000,000 struck for circulation, the Representation of the People Act 50p is the 61st rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 137th 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 Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 50p, with 8,800,000 struck, and the next more common is the Paddington at St Paul's 50p, with 9,001,000 struck.

Look for a row of five figures in the clothes of 1918 across the lower half of the coin, one woman raising her voting card, with 1918 at the top and REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT beneath it. Do not confuse it with the Suffragettes 50p from 2003, which shows a single woman chained to railings beside a ballot paper. The value sits on the heads side with the fifth portrait, and no varieties are recorded.

The Representation of the People Act 1918 widened the vote across Britain. It gave the vote to all men over 21 and to servicemen from the age of 19, and for the first time it let women vote, provided they were over 30 and met a property qualification. Equal voting rights for women over 21 followed with the Equal Franchise Act of 1928. The Royal Mint marked the centenary in 2018 with a circulating 50p designed by Stephen Taylor. His reverse shows a line of five people in the dress of 1918, men and women together, waiting their turn at the polls while one woman holds up her voting card. Above them the lettering is stacked as 1918, REPRESENTATION, OF, THE PEOPLE and ACT, with the year first, and Taylor's initials ST appear on the same side. The value and the date 2018 are on the heads side, around Jody Clark's fifth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. The design was also sold in brilliant uncirculated packs, in the 2018 annual set and as a proof.