2021 Change Checker Awards – WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Since the 2021 Change Checker Awards were opened to celebrate the very best people in the world of change collecting, nominations have been flooding in, and it really has been incredible to hear all of your stories from the last year.

It’s certainly meant we’ve had a really tough job deciding on the winners, but with thanks to our panel of judges from the Change Checker team and AllAboutCoins, our well deserved winners have now been selected…

Change Checker of the Year

Winner

Jeffrey Savage

Not only does Jeffrey have an impressive collection both 50p and £2 coins, his enthusiasm for the hobby is captivating. He’s spent a great deal of time and effort encouraging a friend’s son to develop a collection, even gifting him coins when he’s found them.

A truly deserving winner – well done!

Runner-up

Grace Potter

Grace has been nominated in our Change Checker Community for being a helpful and kind member. She has been praised for swapping not only coins, but also her knowledge, helping other members become more experienced in the hobby!

Congratulations!

Junior Change Checker of the Year

Winner

Oscar Harding

Oscar has become a passionate collector, with a wealth of knowledge on circulating coinage (from mintages to designers!) He’s particularly interested in collecting 50p coins, with his heart set on the Kew Gardens, something we can all relate to! His younger sister has now been introduced to the hobby, with the help of her brother, Oscar.

Congratulations!

Runner-up

Harry Halser

Harry has gone above and beyond in the community this year, checking his change at every opportunity and asking other family members to keep an eye out for him. He’s new to the hobby but is passionate, driven, and excited about the coins he has found in his change – all the qualities needed to be a super coin collector!

Well done!


A huge congratulations to our winners and runners up! Keep up the great work. Your prizes are on their way to you!

Matt, a panel member at AllAboutCoins said:

“Once again change checkers around the country have gone above and beyond to find the rarest coins and improve their collections, despite the funny old year we have experienced. What is most impressive about the winners is their clear passion to learn; collecting coins is not just about obtaining the designs themselves, it’s about discovering the stories behind the coins, the reasons they have been issued, and finding out who created these mini masterpieces. Congratulations to both the winners and runners-up and be sure to keep building your knowledge as well as your collection!”


Coin Design of the Year

It comes as no surprise that the 2021 Coin Design of the Year is awarded to the Decimal Day 50p!

The coin has been one of the biggest talking points of the year in the collecting community. We saw two versions of this 50p commemorating the 50th anniversary of our UK coinage turning decimal.

The first version of the Decimal Day 50p, available exclusively in the 2021 Annual Coin Set, features the original Arnold Machin portrait of Her Majesty The Queen on the obverse – the same obverse used for the UK’s very first decimal coins.

However, the individual coin which was released later in January, featured Jody Clark’s fifth portrait of The Queen instead.

If you want to find out why The Royal Mint reverted back to the Queen’s first decimal effigy for this new issue, click here >>

Which version of the 2021 UK Decimal Day 50p do you have in your collection? Let us know in the comment below!

Coin Story of the Year

The winning article in the Coin Story of the Year category, goes to second-time winner George Nixon of This Is Money!

His article, which you can read here, covers the story of Decimalisation, from the brand new 50p issued to mark the 50th anniversary of Decimal Day, to the rarest decimal coins currently in circulation.

Speaking to Change Checker, George said: “Becoming the first person to win back-to-back Coin Story of the Year awards is a real privilege. While I’ve hung up the coin cape with my move to The Times, it’s great to see This is Money once again recognised for the consistent excellence of its coin coverage.”


A big thank you once again to AllAboutCoins for supporting us this year and of course a huge congratulations to all of our winners and all the fantastic entries we had this year.

We’d like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support in 2021 and hope that 2022 is a fantastic year of Change Checking for you all!


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The 50p issued to celebrate 50 years since Decimal Day – JUST released!

On February 15th 1971, the UK’s currency went decimal and this enormous change to UK coinage called for one of the biggest publicity campaigns our nation had ever seen!

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘Decimal Day’, as it was known, The Royal Mint has JUST released a brand new 50p.

This brand new 50p, designed by Dominique Evans, features overlapping pre-decimal coins in an ode to Decimal Day, with the date ‘1971’ at the centre of the design.

Secure the 2021 Decimal Day 50p for your collection for JUST £4.50 (+p&p) by clicking here >

Over the years, the 50p has become the most-collected and best-loved decimal coin in the UK and given the significance of this anniversary, demand for this new coin is expected to be high.

You can secure your 2021 Decimal Day 50p for your collection for JUST £4.50 (+p&p) by clicking here >>

We’ve seen some amazing coins issued since Decimalisation. In this blog, we take a closer look at some of Change Checker’s favourites.

2019 50th Anniversary of the 50p Coin

2019 marked a milestone moment for coin collectors as the world’s first seven-sided coin celebrated its 50th anniversary. To celebrate the anniversary, The Royal Mint issued this 50p.

2019 50th Anniversary of the 50p Anniversary Coin

This coin was designed by The Royal Mint design team and is said to ‘pay tribute to the science that gave us the world’s first seven-sided coin’.

Featuring Christopher Ironside’s iconic Britannia on the reverse, inscribed with ‘NEW PENCE’ just as the original 1969 coin was, this unique 50p has not one, but two special features:

  1. An exclusive never-before-seen mint mark; the Spirograph type design has been drawn from an extension of lines forming the 50p shape
  2. minting first; on the outer rim of the reverse design, the letters A-G appear on each point and are joined by crossing lines.

You can secure this 50p for your collection, whilst stocks last, for JUST £4.50 (+p&p) here >>

The first-ever £2 coin!

In 1986, a brand new UK denomination was introduced in the form of a £2 coin.

1986 Commonwealth Games £2

Prior to the introduction of the bi-metallic £2 coins in 1998, single-coloured, nickel-brass £2 coins were issued, purely to mark special occasions. Between 1986 and 1996, there were seven different designs of the single-coloured £2 coins.

The 1986 Commonwealth Games £2 coin changed the face of UK commemorative coins, being the first of its denomination to be struck and the first British coin being issued to commemorate a sporting event.

Do you remember the old specification £2 coins? Let us know in the comments below!

The bi-metallic £2 coin!

The new type of £2 coin was introduced in 1997 and featured an innovative bi-metallic design – the first in the history of British coinage.

Technology £2 – Issued 1997 – date.

The concentric circles on this design by Bruce Rushin represent mankind’s technological evolution from the Iron Age at the centre, to the cogs and wheels in the first ring representing the Industrial Revolution.

The next ring symbolises the computer age with a pattern derived from a silicon chip and the final outer ring represents the age of the Internet with a connecting web of lines.

This design has been used on definitive £2 coins from 1997 to 2015!

Britain’s Round Pounds

The first UK £1 coin was issued in 1983 to replace the £1 banknote, which only lasted a few months in circulation! The £1 coin quickly became a hit with collectors, with everyone trying to hunt down the different designs.

1983 Royal Coat of Arms £1

The first £1 coin design features the Royal Coat of Arms designed by Eric Sewell, a chief engraver at the Royal Mint. It also features the edge Inscription: DECUS ET TUTAMEN.

This coin was issued in 1983, 1993, 2003, 2008 and has a circulating mintage of 623,304,510.

After more than 30 years in the nation’s pockets, the familiar round £1 coin was replaced with an all new, 12-sided £1 coin in 2017 and it lost its legal tender status at midnight on 15 October 2017.

Despite this, some round pounds remain incredibly popular with collectors, due to their designs and their low mintages.

Nations of the Crown £1

The new £1 coin first entered circulation in March 2017 and it features 12 sides.

2016 Nations of the Crown £1

Billed as the most secure circulating coin in the world, the new £1 has been formally named ‘The Nations of the Crown 2017 UK £1′.

The coin, designed by 15-year-old David Pearce following a public competition in 2015, is made up of the English rose, the Welsh leek, the Scottish thistle and the Northern Irish shamrock emerging from one stem within a royal coronet to represent the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom.

5p and 10p Coins

In 1968 the 10 New Pence coin entered circulation to replace the florin as part of Britain’s conversion to a system of decimal currency.

10 New Pence

The public was uncertain about using this new coin to start with, after generations of pounds, shillings and pence, meaning the Decimal Currency Board still needed to reassure suspicious Britons to go decimal.

Our 10p coin has seen three different definitive designs and in 2018 we saw our first-ever commemorative designs, with the release of 26 A-Z of Great Britain 10p coins!

A-Z of Great Britain 10p coins – first issued in 2018.

In April 1968, 5p coins were issued as a replacement for shillings in preparation for decimalisation in 1971.

5 New Pence.

These were released into circulation at the same time as the very first 10p coins.

In 1990 and 1992, the specifications of the 5p and 10p were reduced, respectively. On 27th June 1990 the new 18.00mm 5p was introduced and 30th September 1992, a reduced size version of the 10 pence coin was introduced


Since decimalisation, we’ve seen some incredible definitive and commemorative designs to our UK coins.

Let us know in the comment which definitive design is your favourite!


Secure the brand new 2021 Decimal Day 50p for your collection!

Secure the 2021 Decimal Day 50p for your collection by clicking here.

You can own yours in CERFITIED Brilliant Uncirculated quality for just £4.50 (+p&p) today.

Click here to own the 2021 UK Decimal Day 50p now >>

Design your own A-Z 10p!

It’s time to get creative as we challenge Junior Change Checkers to design their very own A-Z 10p!

In 2018, the surprise release of 26 commemorative 10p coins celebrating the A-Z of Great Britain caused quite the stir in the collecting world and have since kick started a nation wide coin hunt!

These sought-after coins have proved incredibly tricky to hunt down, but have certainly caught the imagination of the British public with their unique designs.

And so now we’re calling all our Change Checker Juniors to have a go at designing their very own A-Z 10p.

We’ll be turning the TOP 5 designs into virtual 10p coin animations, so stay tuned to see if your design is selected!

If you’d like to get involved, all you need to do is follow these simple steps:

1. Download this PDF and print it out.

2. Create your A-Z 10p design and fill in the details on the page. You can take inspiration from the UK 10ps listed on our web app!

3. Photograph your design.

4. Post a photo of your design in the comments on this Facebook post [link]

The TOP 5 designs will be brought to life in an animation and featured in a Change Checker video, which will be available to watch on the 13th June.

Entries close at 9am on Tuesday 9th June, so don’t delay!

Best of luck and happy designing!


If you’re interested in coin collecting, our Change Checker web app is completely free to use and allows users to:

– Find and identify the coins in their pocket
– Collect and track the coins they have
– Swap their spare coins with other Change Checkers

Change Checker Web App Banner 2 Amends 1024x233 1 1024x233 - Your January 2019 Scarcity Index update!

Sign up today at: www.changechecker.org/app