UK Commemorative themes for 2018

[eurocoin]

Is this for the Royal Mint?

Yes.

[Deeman]

The edge inscription on the Captain Cook coin appeared on a medal struck by The Royal Society following Cook's untimely death (murdered by natives of Hawaii in 1779).

[eurocoin]

From now up until the end of the year, new batches of Alphabet 10p coins will be released by the post offices.

[augsburger]

Kind of logical they'd do this.

First create a furor over the whole thing, then issue more, rather than issuing loads at the beginning. Gets all the shop workers going crazy.

[Alan71]

I've not seen one 10p commemorative in circulation yet.  I imagine they get snapped up by eBay sellers/Facebook collectors that true collectors don't really get a look-in anymore.

[augsburger]

Yes, it's what they're after. It makes people go crazy enough to buy sets from the mint at over-inflated prices.

[eurocoin]

The coin for the 40th anniversary of Raymond Briggs' book 'the Snowman' will depict James and the snowman flying as in the image below:

[Deeman]

Keeping true to the book, the boy in The Snowman is unnamed.
In the film he is named "James" by virtue of a tag on a present he receives from Father Christmas.

[eurocoin]

Discount code BND094 for a free BU Paddington at the Station 50p coin on each order of at least 60 pounds.

[eurocoin]

2018-dated UK coins so far reported as having been found in circulation with an indication of how many were found:

- 26 Alphabet 10p coins (A lot)
- Paddington at the station 50p coin (A few)
- Mrs Tittlemouse 50p coin (One as of today)

[Deeman]

I asked the Royal Mint to provide the mintage figure for the 2018 Isaac newton 50p coin from the 'strike your own' RM Experience.

Their response under the FOI request was 19,934.

[eurocoin]

Their response under the FOI request was 19,934.

The figure was already a public secret on the forum for a few months but kept confidential because of arrangements with the mint. Good that the figure is now public so it can be shared further.

[<k>]

Their response under the FOI request was 19,934.

19,934. What a beautiful number! So much nicer than 19,933. I bet you re-memorise it every morning, so you can carry the sacred knowledge around with you and chant it to people and maybe even cure their ailments. Of course, humans regularly miscount when the number is over twenty. Even machines can make mistakes. And a human copying a number down from a source is liable to get it wrong if he is not concentrating properly.

It would have been better if you had asked for the names and addresses of the people who did "The Experience", so you could potentially buy their coins off them and corner the market. Or in fact, just sell any coin on ebay and claim it was from "The Experience". People will pay more for it, because they think that makes it more authentic than the mass-produced ones, and probably even sacred too.

An acquaintance recently asked the Royal Mint for some mintage figures regarding an overseas client. He noted with concern that they didn't match the published figures of the client country for that year. The Mint wouldn't revisit them - after all, they were the only figures they had. So now my contact puzzles over whose figures are right.

My own opinion is that there are only two useful mintage figures: "enough" and "hardly any". The 1933 penny is in the latter category, and even then people argue over whether there are really 5, 6 or 7 pieces in existence. And I would bet that the figure you were given is out by at least 8 and maybe 2,007, because of the various errors that creep in. 

I would like to ask why these figures mean so much to you. That some attach such significance to them makes me chuckle. Of course, we all have our obsessions, and this forum is littered with the traces of my own. But here I am just interested in what motivates the "mintage figures obsession". That syndrome is becoming so widespread, somebody ought to invent a word for it. 

[Figleaf]

My own opinion is that there are only two useful mintage figures: "enough" and "hardly any".

[Alan71]

Oh come on, it does matter to some people!  This will be/is one of the rarest cupro-nickel circulation coins in existence.  It doesn't appear in any sets so that 19,934 really is it.  Kew Gardens' 210,000 is topped up by the ones in sets and precious metals.

It's probably on a par with the Blue Peter Olympic 50p of 2009.  Out of interest, does anyone (well, eurocoin) know how many of those were issued?  They were only issued in those little card holders.

As both the Blue Peter coin and the Isaac Newton coin were issued in much larger numbers with other dates on, they will never have the notoriety that Kew etc have, but nevertheless they are very rare in comparison.

Out of interest, does anyone (and I really mean eurocoin again!) know what the Royal Mint Experience is currently offering in the strike-your-own coin? 

Besides, if the Mint insists on continually issuing coins in small numbers and publicising that some are rare, then I don't really have much sympathy if they are then bombarded by FOI requests wanting to know exact figures.