Royal Shield 50p (2008 to 2022)

Coins from the circulation years are everywhere, so a Royal Shield 50p from change is worth face value. What changes the picture is the date. The set-only years, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018 and 2021, were never issued as loose change, so uncirculated coins of those dates sell well above face value, with 2016 the most wanted. The 2022 versions with a star or 26-22 privy mark are collected separately, as are the uncirculated coins from the 2008 Royal Shield of Arms presentation folder.

With 353,590,405 struck for circulation, the Royal Shield 50p is the 79th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 175th lowest mintage of all 194 circulating UK designs. That puts it in the Common band, for mintages 10,000,000 or more.

The next rarer 50p is the Britannia (FIFTY PENCE, large) 50p, with 114,819,007 struck, and the next more common is the Britannia (NEW PENCE) 50p, with 594,917,500 struck.

Its lowest circulation mintage was in 2017, with 1,800,000 struck.

Look for heraldry rather than a picture: the tip of a shield fills the coin, with the base of the harp quarter on one side, the base of the English lions quarter on the other and FIFTY PENCE low down. The coin sits point down, unlike older 50ps. Dates run from 2008 to 2022, but several years in between were made only for sets, so check the date on the heads side. Sets from 2022 also included versions with a small privy mark.

Known varieties of the Royal Shield 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• 2022 privy-mark versions: Brilliant uncirculated 2022 versions with a star privy mark and with a 26-22 privy mark were sold in sets; not issued for circulation.

In August 2005 the Royal Mint opened a public competition for new reverses on every circulating coin except the £2 coin. The winner, announced in April 2008, was Matthew Dent from Bangor in Wales, whose idea split the Royal Shield of Arms across six coins, so that the 1p to 50p fit together into the whole shield, with the complete shield on the round £1 coin. The 50p holds the bottom of that puzzle: the point of the shield, with the lower parts of the quarter bearing the harp of Ireland and the quarter bearing the lions passant of England. FIFTY PENCE is lettered in the lower part of the coin, and Dent's initials MD are on this side as well. The new designs entered circulation from mid-2008 and changed how the 50p is displayed. Earlier reverses were drawn with a point of the heptagon at the top; this one puts the point at the bottom, and the heads side was rotated to match. Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen was used until 2015, then Jody Clark's.