Comments on "Legend Variations on the 50p Coins"

[<k>]

Parent topic:   UK Decimals: Legend Variations on the 50p Coins



The parent topic (above) gives an overview of the legend variations of the UK 50 pence coins since decimalisation. Please post any comments, questions or corrections here.

 

[<k>]

FIFTY PENCE

Top: Upside-down varieties.

Bottom: Legends that include the denomination.

[<k>]

Well, Alan71 has taken my idea and made it far more interesting than I could have. Is he trying to win the Nobel Prize or something? If so, I deserve a percentage.    He's even invented his own numbering system: the Alan71 numbers. Already, Kim Jong Un is asking when the Alan71 numbers for North Korea will be ready.    Seriously well done, though. I think the topic is good enough to be a magazine article. 

[Alan71]

Thanks <k>.  I need to check it for errors.  When I did my original list going through the coins, I missed out the small size Maklouf from the numbering.  In the topic I've added it back, but that's thrown all my previous numbering out by one!  As I am about to go away, I'll have to leave it for now and maybe leave the pages open in my Safari in order to read over it on the plane!

[<k>]

OK, excellent start, though. Enjoy your trip to North Korea, then. Hope you return safely.   

[andyg]

Funny how you can look at 50p pieces almost everyday and never notice they change so much.  Excellent thread btw.

[Alan71]

 

OK, excellent start, though. Enjoy your trip to North Korea, then. Hope you return safely.   

That's one place that's not on my list to visit!

[onecenter]

Funny how you can look at 50p pieces almost everyday and never notice they change so much.  Excellent thread btw.

Absolutely agree!  I have learned far more about British decimal coinage reading about it here than any catalog or even looking at my own collection.

[<k>]

UK 50 pence, 1973.  Membership of the European Economic Community.





"In 2009, the Royal Mint marked the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the 50p coin with special proof sets. The 1973 Ring of Hands design became a Ring of Arms."

I hadn't seen that before. The added arms are flat and 2-dimensional and not at all lifelike. If you went to hospital and came home with arms like that, you'd sue.

[eurocoin]

Did not know about this. Very interesting!

[Alan71]

Yes, I was a bit disappointed when I saw those arms added.  I'm assuming they did it because of the frosted proof effect.  On the original design the arms are hinted at but they fade out.  They could have just done the hands in frosted proof and kept the bits of arms as they were (assuming this was technically possible).

For me, the introduction of the smaller 50p in 1997 was welcome, but the downside was the loss of both the original Britannia design and the Ring of Hands.  The latter was so familiar in change, with 89 million of them having been issued between 1973 and 1976 (all with the 1973 date), that its departure was felt.  I was aware it was the 25th anniversary in 1998 and I had hoped they would re-use the design.  I was a little disappointed when I saw the stars design!  Same with the D-Day one.  I'd hoped to see it return for the 60th anniversary in 2004.

Therefore when this set was announced, I put my order in straightaway.  I can't remember how many were issued. It was £199 new, which I considered a lot for a base metal proof set, even one with 16 50p coins in, but I just had to have it for those four coins alone, and the Ring of Hands most of all.

I did once see some coins being sold individually on eBay but that was quite a few years ago.  I can't see anything on eBay now.  With today's Facebook generation ("I know very little about coins and I prove it with my idiotic comments but, hey, I collect because I don't want to be caught out if another Kew Gardens happens.  I want to be able to make a quick buck"), it would probably fetch ridiculous sums.

[eurocoin]

An interesting discovery you made about the 2017-dated Newton 50p coin not corresponding to the royal approval. It appears the mistake is only on the circulation and BU versions whereas the editions in proof are all correct.

[eurocoin]

A reliable contact told me a few months ago that the Mint did find out about the missing dot on obverse 5b during the trialling of the minting dies, but that they just couldn't be bothered to correct either the dies or the royal approval.