Rowing 50p (2011)

Rowing coins were struck in middling numbers for the London 2012 set, so circulated ones are not hard to find and the state of the coin sets most of its price. The raised lettering is the place to judge wear: on a sharp coin every letter of FRIENDSHIP and EXCELLENCE stands out cleanly, and on a tired one the smaller words blur together. Uncirculated coins sold in the Royal Mint's Rowing coin card or coin cover are worth more than change finds.

With 1,717,300 struck for circulation, the Rowing 50p is the sixteenth rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 61st lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Scarce band, for mintages 1,000,000 to 2,499,999.

The next rarer 50p is the Mrs Tittlemouse 50p, with 1,700,000 struck, and the next more common is the Gymnastics 50p, with 1,720,813 struck.

Look for lines of block capitals filling the left side of the coin: EXCELLENCE, FRIENDSHIP, FAIR PLAY and RESPECT, set at a slant and in several sizes. A two-person boat with long oars crosses in front of them towards the lower right. The logo at the top has the Olympic rings, and the obverse carries the 2011 date with Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen. Collectors have recorded no varieties of the rowing design.

Davey Podmore, a graphic designer from East Yorkshire, found the competition on the London 2012 website. It struck him as a way to be part of the Olympics, and a place in the Royal Mint's history was a prize in itself. He chose rowing because he enjoys watching it as a race and counts Steve Redgrave among the great Olympians. What he wanted to catch was one moment: the race that a rower's whole life has been building towards, and the passion a crew pours into it. He also pictured the boat leaving an imprint in its wake as it cut through the water. After researching the design of the boat and the rowers, he added lettering to give the picture a story, drawing on his interest in typography. On the reverse two rowers in a narrow boat pull on long oars, and behind them the words EXCELLENCE, FRIENDSHIP, FAIR PLAY and RESPECT each appear twice, in bold slanted capitals of different sizes.

It was one of the 30 coins in the Olympic set issued in 2011.