Standard versus special designs for standard denominations

[<k>]

No my figure implies that of all 50p coins that were brought into circulation in 1992 and 1993, 100% were commemorative coins. These figures are exactly what you have asked for in your first message.

OK, I'd confused myself. You must have hypnotised me. 

Here is your crucial sentence:

"With 1973 and 1994 being the only years in which the standard design was not minted at all. In both years, only a commemorative 50p was minted. "

So the 100% figures for 2009 to 2011 are interesting, since they mean that the supposedly scarce Kew Gardens 50p (which I only have from a set) was issued for circulation, but the standard 50p was not.

[<k>]

After the issue of the 20p in 1982, its main effect was to render the 50p particularly unpopular, i.e. it was not needed in such quantities as before, and the clearing banks complained that they were holding millions of pounds' worth that the Mint refused to to take back off their hands. This situation was resolved when the smaller 50p was introduced in 1997. The older versions were then recalled and melted down.

Although in practice very few 1992/3 EU and 1994 D-Day commemoratives were actually put into circulation. I have never seen the former (my only example is in a BU set) and my 1994 coins I got straight from the bank in the days when you could go into a bank and ask for such things.

Looking at these two quotes together, I am now puzzled. We know that the 50p became the least popular circulation coin after 1983 and the introduction of the pound coin. By 1990, I was reading that the banks were holding 100 million pounds' worth of 50p coins that they could not get rid of, and the Mint refused to take them back. Given that this situation was not resolved until 1997, when the smaller 50p was introduced, how did any special 50p coins get into circulation in 1992/3 and 1994? If the banks already had more than enough standard 50p coins and were annoyed about the situation, why would they take any special ones from the Mint and put them into circulation?

[FosseWay]

As I said, I have no personal evidence that they were put into circulation, in the sense that the man and woman in the street received them in change and paid for things with them. I imagine a number of people did as I did in 1994 and got one or more directly from a bank/PO and kept them. I can't remember whether I tried to do this for the 1992/3 issue and failed to find any, or simply didn't try.

I suspect what the RM means by "circulation issues" is "coins distributed to banks for circulation use". What the banks then choose to do with them is not the RM's problem. I suspect quite a lot of both issues, plus the standard Britannia coins issued up to 1985, sat unused in banks until sent back for melting in 1997. Others will have been issued by banks to people like me who then kept them or swapped them within the collecting community rather than spending them. Both categories will nevertheless have been counted as "for circulation" by the RM.

[<k>]

As I said, I have no personal evidence that they were put into circulation, in the sense that the man and woman in the street received them in change and paid for things with them.

I do remember getting a D-Day 50p in change in the 1990s. It looked "circulated", but that doesn't necessarily preclude it coming from a set originally.

I imagine a number of people did as I did in 1994 and got one or more directly from a bank/PO and kept them.

The question then is, why would banks be getting these coins in the first place, if they already had a backlog, as it were, of 50p coins? Banks do not exist merely to serve numismatists. It's not clear to me how the process works - or worked - of getting special 50p coins to the banks.

I suspect what the RM means by "circulation issues" is "coins distributed to banks for circulation use". Both categories will nevertheless have been counted as "for circulation" by the RM.

I'd agree with that. That's why I wrote "standard and special designs of the 50p", referring to the designs, since both are intended for circulation - apart from the pieces that are reserved for Royal Mint sets.

[FosseWay]

I do remember getting a D-Day 50p in change in the 1990s. It looked "circulated", but that doesn't necessarily preclude it coming from a set originally.

I suspect it was a genuine circulation issue - they did exist, as I demonstrated. What I'm less sure of is how many bags of them got sent out as everyday floats to shopkeepers, as distinct from being exchanged in small numbers by interested members of the public. Mind you, my "circulation" example of the 1986 50p, which can only have come from a set, shows no signs of its erstwhile BU status - I'd grade it EF but there's noticeable wear on the Queen's hair.