Crowned thistle (NEW PENCE, large) 5p (1968 to 1981)

Worn NEW PENCE 5ps are plentiful and change hands for very little, even though they can no longer be spent. The date that interests collectors is 1977, the smallest circulation year, along with the proof-only 1972 to 1974, 1976 and 1981 coins, which turn up in sets rather than change. Condition makes the real difference: an uncirculated coin with full lustre and sharp detail on the thistle leaves sells well above a worn one.

With 1,129,833,250 struck for circulation, the Crowned thistle (NEW PENCE, large) 5p is the third rarest of the 5 ranked 5p designs and has the 180th 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 5p is the Crowned thistle (FIVE PENCE, large) 5p, with 270,370,610 struck, and the next more common is the Royal Shield 5p, with 3,787,040,420 struck.

Its lowest circulation mintage was in 1977, with 24,308,000 struck.

Size gives it away: this 5p is as big as a shilling and far larger than the 5p in use today. On the tails side, NEW PENCE above the crowned thistle marks the 1968 to 1981 coins, while FIVE PENCE marks the later large coins. The date follows the legend on the heads side. Circulation dates are 1968 to 1971, 1975 and 1977 to 1980; a coin dated 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976 or 1981 came from a proof set.

The 5p and the 10p were the first decimal coins to reach circulation, in April 1968, three years before decimalisation in 1971. The 5p was made to the exact size of the shilling, which simply went on being spent as a 5p, so the two coins circulated side by side for more than twenty years. Christopher Ironside's reverse uses the badge of Scotland, a thistle royally crowned: a thistle head beneath a crown, with its spiky leaves spreading out on either side. NEW PENCE curves along the rim above the crown, the numeral 5 sits under the thistle and beads run round the border. The date is on the heads side, after ELIZABETH II D G REG F D, around Arnold Machin's portrait of the Queen. In 1982 the wording changed to FIVE PENCE, with the thistle left as it was. After a review of the coinage in 1987 the government announced a smaller 5p, and the large coins were withdrawn at the end of 1990.