Winnie the Pooh 50p (2020)

Every Winnie the Pooh 50p was struck to brilliant uncirculated standard or better, so the gap between one coin and the next comes down to presentation and marks. Coins still in the Royal Mint's wallet sell above loose ones, and most of the issue went out in other packaging such as distributor cards, which makes the original wallet the less common way to find it. Handling marks on Pooh's face and the honey jar pull a loose coin down. The colour edition, sold only by the Royal Mint, and the silver and gold proofs are priced as separate coins.

The Winnie the Pooh 50p was not issued for circulation, so it has no rarity rank.

Look for Pooh sitting beside an upturned honey jar, a single bee above him and his name to his right. That pose sets it apart from the 2021 and 2022 group coins, where he shares the scene with his friends, and from the 2026 centenary coins, which carry King Charles III. This one has Queen Elizabeth II and the date 2020 on the heads side. It never circulated, so a genuine example comes from a Royal Mint wallet, a capsule or a distributor card.

Known varieties of the Winnie the Pooh 50p, all listed among the UK error coins and varieties:

• Colour edition: A colour-printed brilliant uncirculated edition sold only by The Royal Mint, with an issue limit of 45,000; 27,217 were made.

The Royal Mint launched the Winnie the Pooh and Friends series in 2020, a nine-coin set marking the 95th anniversary of A. A. Milne's stories, and this coin came first on 23 September 2020. Royal Mint designer Daniel Thorne, working with The Walt Disney Company, designed the reverse from one of E. H. Shepard's original drawings for the books. Pooh sits on the ground next to a honey jar that has tipped over, and a bee hovers above his head. Honey goes right back to the start of Milne's 1926 book, whose opening chapter has Pooh trying to climb a tree to get at some. The same bee appears on all nine Winnie the Pooh and Friends coins of 2020 to 2022. The name Winnie The Pooh is set to the right of the bear in upper and lower case, with a small ©Disney credit. Jody Clark's fifth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II fills the obverse. The Royal Mint's own pack was a fold-out wallet with pages about Pooh, his friends and the Hundred Acre Wood. Christopher Robin and Piglet followed before the year was out.

It was one of the three coins in the Winnie the Pooh set issued in 2020.