Do you know how rare the Great Fire of London £2 really is?

With 37 different £2 coin designs in circulation, it’s very tough to choose a favourite, but one of mine is certainly the Great Fire of London £2, issued in 2016 to mark the 350th anniversary of one of the most well-known disasters to hit London.

The reverse of the coin, designed by Aaron West, depicts the city of London burning in flames from a distance and makes for an eye catching design which I’m sure many collectors love just as much as I do.

But are you lucky enough to have one of these coins in your collection?

Whilst this coin was previously considered ‘Less Common’ (as rated on our Scarcity Index), it has now been confirmed that the mintage figure for the Great Fire of London £2 was mistakenly listed and the coin is in fact rarer than we once thought…

Mintage Charts

To reflect the change to the Great Fire of London £2 coin’s mintage figure, we’ve updated our mintage charts to show you how rare this coin actually is compared to the other £2’s in circulation.


The Great Fire of London has actually jumped up 15 places on the mintage chart now that the correct figure of 1,625,000 has been confirmed.

The previous figure of 5,135,000 placed the coin in the middle of the pack, just slightly rarer than the Gunpowder Plot £2, however it can now be found amongst the London Underground £2 coins, nearer the top of the mintage chart.

Scarcity Index

These changes are also evident on our latest Scarcity Index update.


Whilst the coin has only moved up the index by 4 coin places, this is the biggest movement on the £2 index and the coin’s Scarcity Index score has actually jumped up from 18 to 34 – almost doubling from the previous index!

Historically, the Great Fire of London £2 has always scored in the mid to high teens, but the updated mintage figures now reflect the fact that the coin is in fact harder than previously believed to find in your change.

Have any other coins been affected?

It wasn’t just the Great Fire of London £2 coin which was affected by the updated mintage figures… There were in fact 4 coins from 2016 with previously incorrect figures.


The changes haven’t made much of an impact to either of these coin’s rankings for the Scarcity Index, with both coins actually moving down 1 place on the index pictured above.

With regards to our mintage figure charts, the two coins have simply swapped positions, as can be seen below.


With regards to 50p coins, the only coin affected was the 2016 Peter Rabbit 50p.


This relatively small increase has had no effect on the coin’s ranking on the Scarcity Index or position on the mintage figure chart, which can be seen below.

Whilst the changes to the mintage figures for the Shakespeare £2s and Peter Rabbit 50p have made minimal impact, it’s fair to say that with almost 4 million less Great Fire of London £2 coins in circulation than previously thought, the scarcity of this coin has definitely increased, making it even more special for those of you lucky enough to have one in your collection.


Add the Great Fire of London circulation £2 to your collection!

Following the updated mintage figures, I’m sure collectors will be keen to make sure this coin is added to their collection.

Click here to secure the coin in circulation quality for £8.00 with FREE p&p

10 Comments

  1. Chris Mc on May 27, 2019 at 10:51 am

    I have just found a Great Fire of London £2 coin, is it worth anything, I don’t collect coins



  2. Steve harris on May 27, 2019 at 9:08 am

    Hi Rachel . I have an abolishment of slavery £2 coin with the misprint. How rare is it and what is it’s value ?



  3. Ron Beynon on May 23, 2019 at 9:47 pm

    Hi Rachel
    I have noticed that some coins in the 50p and £2 scarcity list are not included making the list inaccurate.
    There are no Olympic 50p coins, most of which have lower figures than Jemima Puddleduck, which would push
    her well down the list. The £2 britannia is also not listed on the scarcity list. Is there any specific reason for the
    exclusion?



    • Rachel Hooper on May 24, 2019 at 9:07 am

      Hi Ron, the Olympic 50ps are included in the index, but they are only named as sports e.g. ‘Football’ rather than ‘Olympic Football’. The Olympic 50ps actually take up most of the first half of the index. The £2 Britannia is also included on the £2 index and has a score of 8, putting it just below the halfway point. Thanks, Rachel



    • Winslow on May 25, 2019 at 11:03 pm

      Hi rachel could you please explain why most of my two pound coins from 2012 are poor quality, almost fake looking .? Was this a bad year on minting? ?? Regards kelvin



      • Rachel Hooper on May 28, 2019 at 8:37 am

        Hi Kelvin, the Charles Dickens, London 2012 Handover and Technology £2 coins were issued in 2012. Have you noticed poor striking on all of these designs or one in particular? The Charles Dickens £2 has been in the news a lot with people claiming the coin is an ‘error’ because the dots around the edge disappear, however this is just down to worn out dies and time in circulation. You can find out more about this here and other supposed ‘errors’ on the Charles Dickens £2 : https://www.changechecker.org/2018/11/07/how-much-is-my-charles-dickens-2-worth/



  4. Simon on May 23, 2019 at 8:10 pm

    Funnily enough, I picked up one of these only the other day, and thought to myself I haven’t seen one of these before…. great to know it is rare..