The Tailor of Gloucester 50p (2018)

Among the 2018 Beatrix Potter coins this one had the largest circulation mintage, so it is the easiest of that year to find and sells for less than Flopsy Bunny, Mrs Tittlemouse or the 2018 Peter Rabbit. It is still scarcer than any of the 2017 designs, which keeps circulated coins above face value. Crisp examples with clear glasses and newspaper earn more than worn ones. Brilliant uncirculated coins from packs or tubes, and the coloured silver proof, are priced separately.

With 3,900,000 struck for circulation, The Tailor of Gloucester 50p is the 40th rarest of the 81 ranked 50p designs and has the 89th 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 WWF 50p, with 3,400,000 struck, and the next more common is the Squirrel Nutkin 50p, with 5,000,000 struck.

A mouse in glasses, sitting cross-legged on a cotton reel with a newspaper, is the giveaway. Mrs Tittlemouse, the other 2018 mouse, faces left carrying a basket and has her name above her, so the two are easy to separate. Read the lettering for THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER and check the heads side for 2018. Coloured examples are silver proofs rather than coins from change.

The Tailor of Gloucester was the third of four Beatrix Potter 50ps released in 2018, the series' third year, after Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny and ahead of Mrs Tittlemouse. It stands apart from the rest of the series because it does not show a named character. Instead Emma Noble picked a mouse, one of the little helpers in Potter's tale, and drew it sitting cross-legged on a cotton reel, facing forward, wearing tiny glasses and reading a newspaper. The lettering names the book rather than the mouse: THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER. The designer's initials, en., carry a full stop. On the obverse are the 2018 date and Jody Clark's crowned portrait of Elizabeth II. The coin entered circulation in October 2018, with brilliant uncirculated versions in packs and tubes and a coloured silver proof made for collectors.

It was one of the four coins in the Beatrix Potter set issued in 2018.