The FIRST 2023 dated King Charles III coins!

To welcome in the near year, the BRAND-NEW Annual Coin Set has just been issued including the FIRST 2023 dated King Charles III coins!

For 70 years our coins have featured the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. So, as we enter a new era of UK coinage, now really is the time to build up your new collection of coins featuring the King.

The issue of the Annual Coin Set is always exciting for collectors, as these coins are curated by The Royal Mint as being some of the most significant issues of the year to come.

Not only do we have our first King Charles III £2 coins, but there are some very poignant anniversaries being celebrated!

If you don’t want to wait in adding these coins to your collection, click here to get yours in Brilliant Uncirculated Quality >>

Otherwise, continue reading to discover these brand new UK coins...

King Charles III 75th Birthday £5

2023 King Charles III 75th Birthday £5

This year, His Majesty King Charles III celebrates his 75th birthday, his first birthday as our reigning monarch.

£5 coins have always been reserved for key royal anniversaries and significantly, this is the first £5 coin that has been solely dedicated to our now King.

On the reverse design, floral emblems can be seen surrounded the number 75 and His Majesty’s Royal Cypher.

75th Anniversary of the NHS 50p

Also celebrating its 75th birthday this year is our beloved National Health Service.

Our NHS has kept us safe for ¾ of a century and significantly, has saved millions of lives.

This year, The Royal Mint issues its second NHS 50p, following on from the incredibly popular 1998 coin.

Its reverse design features words synonymous with the NHS, including Dedication, Respect, Empathy, and Knowledge.

2023 King Charles NHS 50p

Windrush Generation 50p

2023 King Charles III Windrush Generations 50p

2023 will mark 75 years since the arrival of the Windrush ship, carrying many people from British Commonwealth countries who had been granted British citizenship from the British Nationality Act.

However, the Windrush generations experiences were different than imagined.

To say thank you, and to celebrate their sacrifices and contributions, The Royal Mint has issued a brand new 50p.

Flying Scotsman £2

2023 marks 100 years since the Flying Scotsman entered service.

This is the world’s most famous steam engine and is easily the most recognized.

It was the first locomotive to run on the newly formed London and North-Eastern Railway line.

To celebrate its centenary, The Royal Mint has issued this brand-new £2 coin – one of the first £2 coins to bear King Charles III’s portrait on the obverse.

2023 King Charles III Flying Scotsman £2

J. R. R. Tolkien £2

2023 King Charles III J. R. R. Tolkien £2

3rd January is official J. R. R. Tolkien Day – the birthday of the Lord of the Rings author.

His works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, have since gone on to be adapted as some of the highest-grossing films of all time.

To celebrate his birthday, The Royal Mint has issued this brand-new £2 coin.

It features a quote taken from Tolkien’s famed fantasy novel, The Fellowship of the Ring.


We can’t wait to see the individual issue of each of these coins, but of course, we will have to wait several months for each of these to be available.

That’s why the Annual Coin Set is the best way to get ahead and add these coins to your collection.


Add the first 2023 King Charles III Coins to your collection!

Your coins will come protectively encapsulated in Change Checker packaging, reading to slot straight into your Change Checker Album.

What’s more, you’ve also got an ID card detailing each of the coin’s designs.

To get yours for JUST £42 (+p&p), simply click here >>

The rarest 50p and £2 coins revealed! UPDATED UK mintage figures.

As collectors, we often find ourselves focusing on the commemorative coins that turn up in our change, but how often do we pay attention to the definitive designs?

We wouldn’t normally combine definitive and commemorative mintage figures into one chart, however the comparative figures give us an interesting insight into the change in our pockets and actually go to show why the definitive coin designs deserve your attention…

50p Mintage Figures

Our latest charts featuring the updated commemorative coin mintage figures for circulation coins revealed the 2017 Sir Isaac Newton 50p as the second rarest UK 50p in circulation after the Kew Gardens, with a mintage of just 1,801,500. This knocked Jemima Puddle Duck off the second spot with a whopping 298,500 less coins being struck.

Change Checkers had already shown a great response to the Sir Isaac Newton coin, voting it their favourite coin design of the year in 2017. But now, as we delve deeper into the mintage figures for not only commemorative 50p coins but also the definitive designs, an unlikely rival has pipped the 2017 Isaac Newton to the post to claim the title of the second rarest UK 50p coin in circulation…

You might be surprised by the second rarest 50p in circulation…

The chart above features the mintage figures for every commemorative and definitive UK 50p coin in circulation and whilst the Kew Gardens still remains king, it came as a surprise that the second rarest 50p was actually a definitive rather than a commemorative design.

The 2017 Royal Shield 50p has a mintage of just 1,800,000 which means there are 1,500 less coins than the 2017 Sir Isaac Newton 50p. This is by far the lowest mintage figure for any definitive 50p coin, with the next rarest definitive coin having almost double the amount of coins struck – the 2008 Britannia with a mintage of 3,500,000.

Definitive 50p coin designs

Christopher Ironside’s Britannia design featured on all UK definitive coins from their first appearance in 1969 with the words ‘NEW PENCE’ inscribed above. The inscription was revised in 1982 to say ‘FIFTY PENCE’ and this design remained unchanged until 2008, when Matthew Dent’s Royal Shield design was introduced, featuring the third and fourth quarters of the Royal Arms.

It comes as no surprise that the majority of the definitive designs can be found towards the bottom of the chart, with the most common UK 50p in circulation being the 1997 Britannia. The old larger 50p and this smaller one were both dated 1997, however the larger coin was only struck as year sets, whereas the smaller circulated in very large numbers, with a mintage of 456,364,100.

The fact that the 2017 Benjamin Bunny commemorative 50p features in amongst the definitive designs goes to show just how many of this design were struck and how likely you’ll be to find one in your change.

We haven’t included the Olympic 50p coins in the mintage chart as this was a specially struck series, with low mintages figures for each coin. You can see the Olympic 50p mintage figures here >>

£2 Mintage Figures

When it comes to the £2 coins, the Commonwealth Games are some of the rarest in circulation. In fact, all four coins would be sat at the top of the mintage charts if it wasn’t for two 2015 coins…

The rarest definitive £2 coin revealed…

Many collectors will be aware of the 2015 Navy £2‘s low mintage figure of 650,000, making it the third rarest UK £2 coin in circulation, however many of us may not know that this coin is in fact joint third, as a definitive design from the same year also holds the same low mintage figure.

In 2015, the new definitive £2 coin was introduced, with a design featuring the Britannia, replacing the Technology design which had featured on the coin since 1997. Britannia has featured on a British coin in one way or another for more than 300 years, apart from after 2008 when she was dropped from the 50p coin. She received a welcome return to British coinage for the 2015 definitive £2, but with so few coins being struck, this coin has become the third rarest UK £2 coin in circulation.

The 2016 version of the coin had a higher mintage of 2,925,000, but this is still incredibly low when compared to the 1998 Technology £2, which has a mintage of 91,110,375.

Of course the most common £2 coin you’re likely to come across in your change is the Technology £2, which dominates the bottom of the chart. The rarest of the Technology £2 coins is actually the 2005 issue, with a mintage of 3,837,250, making it the eighteenth rarest UK £2 in circulation.

You may have noticed a lack of 2017 coins on the £2 chart as to date The Royal Mint haven’t confirmed if they will enter circulation. Based on The Royal Mint’s figures, we know that no 2017 Britannia coins were struck for circulation.

I was certainly surprised by the rarity of some of the definitive designs shown on the charts above and will be checking the dates of the coins in my change very carefully to see if I can find any rarer ones for myself, but will you be doing the same?


Your chance to own the 2017 Britannia £2

This coin wasn’t struck for circulation, however you can own this coin as part of the 2017 Royal Mint Annual set.

But you’ll have to be quick, as this set is no longer on sale at The Royal Mint.

Click here to secure yours today >>

The Allied Nations join forces once again …

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month this year, we will mark exactly 100 years since the guns fell silent – the war in Europe was over.

To mark this historic centenary year, many of the allied nations have joined forces again to issue special commemorative coins in a poignant move to mark the anniversary, and so we’ve taken a look at some of the coins released from around the world, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, France and of course the UK.

2018 UK Armistice £2

2018 UK Armistice £2

This £2 is the final coin issued as part of the First World War £2 series first issued by The Royal Mint in 2014.  Issued earlier in 2018, the design by Stephen Raw features the words ‘The truth untold, the pity of war’, from the Wilfred Owen poem Strange Meeting. The words stand out of a mud-like background in the centre of this striking £2 coin, which was actually modelled in the clay taken by the artist from the Sambre-Oise Canal where Wilfred Owen died in 1918.

 

2018 Canada Armistice $2

2018 Canadian Armistice $2 coins – uncoloured and coloured

In October this year, The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled these finely crafted $2 coins issued to remember the sacrifices of Canadians who fought for freedom during WWI.

Just 3 million coins have been minted – two million of a stunning coloured version and one million of the non-coloured coin, both of which have been released into circulation in Canada. The reverse image by artist Laurie McGaw features a soldier’s helmet in the centre to represent the many lives lost during WWI and the large poppy beneath it is inspired by the Canadian poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, who died in combat in January, 1918.

 

2018 New Zealand Armistice 50-cent

2018 New Zealand Armistice 50-cent

The 2018 Armistice 50 cent coin follows the Anzac coin which was minted in 2015 to mark the centenary of New Zealand’s efforts in WW1. Designed by Dave Burke, the reverse of this 50 Cent features a coloured red poppy flower surrounded by a wreath and the three silver ferns on the wreath represent the three services of the New Zealand Defence Force: Army, Navy and Air Force. The 50-cent coins were released into circulation in New Zealand last month but were actually struck by The Royal Canadian Mint, where all 10, 20 and 50 cent coins are currently minted for New Zealand.

 

2018 Australia Armistice $2

2018 Australia Armistice $2

Just released by The Royal Australian Mint today, the new $2 Armistice coin serves as a tangible and visible reminder to all Australians of the fight for freedom 100 years ago. Designed by T Dean and developed with the assistance of the Australian War Memorial, the coin features the number 100 to signify the important Armistice Centenary Anniversary, and the centre zero features a red coloured poppy. The coin features a ‘C’ mintmark, meaning the coin has been struck at the Canberra Mint and is a stunning keepsake in this centenary year.

2018 France Armistice €2

2018 France 2 Euro

Issued by La Monnaie de Paris (The Paris Mint), this €2 coin features a cornflower, a symbol of remembrance in France.  This dates back to WWI as soldier’s uniforms were blue and these flowers, as well as poppies, continued to grow in land devastated by war. The flower also symbolizes delicacy and innocence.

Each coin pays its own historic tributes to this significant anniversary marked by millions of people around the world. And as a Change Checker, you’ll appreciate how hard it has been to track down each of these coins. Indeed it’s taken us the best part of a year to secure each of the coins mentioned above to create the Allied Nations Armistice Centenary Coin Pack – drawn together from five of the world’s most renowned Mints.

 


Secure the 2018 Armistice Centenary Coin Pack to mark this important historical anniversary

Without a doubt, these coins would make a great addition to your collection. And in this centenary year, it’s a particularly meaningful purchase which I hope will find a cherished place in your collection.

Because of the difficulty in sourcing these coins, we only have a limited number of collections available, so please click below now to be one of the first to own them all.

Click here to secure the 2018 Allied Nations Armistice Coin Pack >>