Sherlock Holmes 50p (2019)

The Sherlock Holmes 50p was struck for circulation in large numbers, so a coin from change trades at face value. The small lettering of the story titles is the first thing to wear, and a coin on which every title can still be read is the kind collectors keep. Any premium belongs to the brilliant uncirculated coins sold in packs from May 2019, especially ones still sealed, which are priced above circulated examples. No errors or varieties are known that change its value.

With 8,602,000 struck for circulation, the Sherlock Holmes 50p is the 59th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 135th 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 Scouts 50p, with 7,710,750 struck, and the next more common is the Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 50p, with 8,800,000 struck.

Look for Holmes in silhouette, in profile with his pipe, framed by two columns of tiny story titles separated by dots. The value, 50 PENCE, is on the same side at the bottom, and the date 2019 is on the heads side with the fifth portrait. If you can make out a title such as The Hound of the Baskervilles or The Six Napoleons, you have the right coin. No varieties or errors are recorded for this design.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle trained as a doctor, and the detective he created appeared in sixty stories. For the 160th anniversary of Conan Doyle's birth in 2019, The Royal Mint issued a circulating 50p designed by Stephen Raw, who built the design largely out of words. The centre holds a silhouette of Holmes in profile, facing left with his pipe, together with the name SHERLOCK HOLMES. Down either side runs a column of story titles in small type, divided by dots: sixteen in all, from The Hound of the Baskervilles, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four to The Speckled Band, The Red-Headed League and The Final Problem. The value 50 PENCE sits at the bottom with Raw's initials SR, while the date is on the heads side next to Jody Clark's fifth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Besides the circulation strike, the coin was sold in brilliant uncirculated packs and other collector packaging.