The 2p drought returns…2022 Mintage Figures REVEALED!

One of the biggest numismatic updates of the year comes when the latest mintage figures are announced, and The Royal Mint have just revealed the mintages of all coins that entered circulation in 2022! Each year, when this information is released, we update our Change Checker Mintage charts to see where new circulating coins rank.

We saw millions of almost every denomination enter circulation in 2022, however there was one denomination that you won’t find with a 2022 date in your change…read on to find out more.

50p Mintage Figures

50p Mintage Figure Chart
50p Mintage Figure Chart

Three commemorative 50p designs entered circulation in 2022, as well as the definitive Royal Shield 50p design. It was a year of ‘firsts’ as the 2022 Platinum Jubilee 50p was the first ever royal 50p to be issued and the Queen Elizabeth Memorial 50p was the first ever UK coin issued bearing King Charles III on the obverse.

2022 Platinum Jubilee 50p reverse
2022 Platinum Jubilee 50p reverse
2022 Queen Elizabeth Memorial 50p obverse
2022 Queen Elizabeth Memorial 50p obverse

With the Queen Elizabeth Memorial 50p marking a new era of coinage featuring the King, many collectors old and new were excited to find it in their change. We opened our collector map to track where they were popping up across the country, and it turned out the place most people found one was Newcastle!

Find out where the rest were found >>

Queen Elizabeth Memorial 50p Collector Map
Queen Elizabeth Memorial 50p Collector Map

Despite these new coins being extremely sought after amongst collectors, the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p remains at the top of our chart, with a circulating mintage of only 210,000!

 2009 Kew Gardens 50p
2009 Kew Gardens 50p

£2 Mintage Figures

£2 Mintage Figure Chart

After 2016, there was a 4 year period where no new £2 coins, either commemorative or definitive, entered circulation, however this changed in 2021 when 6,045,000 Britannia £2 coins were released into circulation.

The newly released figures show that in 2022, 4,030,000 Britannia £2s entered circulation, and although the amount is considerably lower than the previous year, it is indicative that there is a demand for £2 coins.

Britannia £2 reverse
Britannia £2 reverse

We still haven’t seen any new commemorative £2 coin designs enter circulation since 2016, however, when this does happen next, it’ll be the first to feature the King on the obverse – another collecting ‘first’!

2022 Definitives

The mintage figures for 2022 dated definitive coins were also revealed…

  • Nations of the Crown £1: 7,735,000
  • Royal Shield 20p: 42,875,000
  • Royal Shield 10p: 38,000,000
  • Royal Shield 5p: 42,800,000
  • Royal Shield 2p: 0
  • Royal Shield 1p: 30,000,000

As mentioned above, you might notice something odd about one of the denominations’ mintage figure – the Royal Shield 2p doesn’t have one! But this isn’t the first time that the 2 pence piece has had a mintage figure of zero.

2p Mintage Figures from The Royal Mint
2p Mintage Figures from The Royal Mint

No 2p coins entered circulation in 2018, 2019 or 2020, however it made a comeback in 2021 with a whopping 117,700,000 entering circulation. Despite its resurgence in 2021, it seems that the 2p drought could be returning – hopefully not for 3 years this time!


It’s always exciting when new mintage figures are revealed and you realise just how rare the change in your pocket really is!

2022 Circulation Coins
2022 Circulation Coins

Have you been lucky enough to find any 2022 dated coins in your change? Let us know in the comments!


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

Sign-up here for FREE >>

£2 coin enters circulation! 2021 Mintage Figures Revealed…

The Royal Mint has JUST revealed the mintage figures for all UK circulation coins and it confirms a £2 coin entered circulation!

It’s fantastic to see that a £2 coin entered circulation in 2021 – the Britannia £2!

So, we’ve updated our £2 Mintage Figure chart to show you where this new coin ranks…

New £2 Coin in Circulation

We wouldn’t normally combine definitive and commemorative mintage figures into one chart, however the comparative figures give us an interesting insight into the diversity of the change in our pocket.

2021 UK Mintage Figures Reveal Britannia £2 entered circulation
2021 UK Mintage Figures Reveal Britannia £2 entered circulation

The Britannia £2 coin entered circulation in 2021, after a 4 year break.

6,045,000 entered circulation, meaning we stand a good chance of finding one in our change!

And, it looks as though we have some 2021 dated definitive coins to hunt down in our change…

  • Nations of the Crown £1: 21,760,000
  • Royal Shield 20p: 19,600,000
  • Royal Shield 10p: 71,200,000
  • Royal Shield 5p: 28,000,000
  • Royal Shield 2p: 117,700,000
  • Royal Shield 1p: 56,000,000

50p Mintage Figures

Sadly, no 50p coins entered circulation in 2021, meaning our mintage figure chart won’t be updated until we get the confirmed mintages for the 2022 50p coins.

2022 Mintage Figures show no new 50p coins entered circulation

The coins you should be looking out for in your change include the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p, 2018 Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny 50p coins, the 2018 Mrs Tittlemouse 50p, and the 2017 Royal Shield 50p.

The 2009 Kew Gardens 50p
2009 Kew Gardens 50p
2018 Peter Rabbit 50p
2018 Peter Rabbit 50p

What about the Olympic 50ps?

In 2012, the Olympic 50p coins entered circulation and it kick-started a collecting frenzy across the nation.

It’s estimated that around 75% of these coins have been removed from circulation by collectors which means they are incredibly sought-after, especially considering these 50ps have some of the lowest mintage figures in circulation…

Many of the Olympic 50ps have a mintage less than 2,000,000 with the rarest (the Olympic Football 50p) having a mintage of just 1,125,500. See the full mintage figures for these coins here >>

The 2012 Olympic 50p coin.

Taking these rare 50ps into consideration, the 2018 Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny coins would sit in joint sixth position, below the Kew Gardens, Football, Wrestling, Judo and Triathlon 50ps.


Have you been lucky enough to find any of the 2021 circulation coins in your change?

It’s always exciting when new mintage figures are revealed and you realise just how rare the change in your pocket really is!


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

So, sign-up here for FREE >>

It’ll only take you a minute…

New 50p and 10p entries! Your Scarcity Index Update…

It’s time for your latest Scarcity Index update, where we reveal the UK’s most sought-after circulation coins of the last three months! And it’s all change once more, as we see some new entrants to our 50p and 10p Indexes…

Following the confirmation of the 2019 mintages at the beginning of the month, we’ve updated our 50p and 10p index to include the Sherlock Holmes 50p, Paddington at the Tower of London 50p, Paddington at St. Paul’s Cathedral 50p, and we’ve updated the total mintages for the A-Z 10p coins.

Whilst these figures have only just been released and we’ll most likely see the effect this has on the Index in the next quarter, there’s been a lot movement across the board in this update…

A-Z 10p Scarcity Index

There’s been another big mix up in our latest A-Z 10p Scarcity Index, with our biggest climber, Q for Queue, jumping up a huge 13 places!

The Yeoman Warder 10p has also knocked the Tea 10p off the top spot where it was sitting comfortably for the previous two quarters!

We’ve seen the Robin 10p climb four spaces – no doubt due to that incredibly low 2019 mintage of just 64,000. This takes the combined 2018 and 2019 mintages for this coin to 284,000.

In fact, all of the lower mintage A-Z 10ps have shot to the top of the index. The Y, Z, and W 10ps all have a 2019 mintage of JUST 63,000 and now all sit in the top 4!

Regardless of where they feature in the above index, if you have any of the A-Z 10ps in your collection you should consider yourself very lucky. A maximum of only 304,000 of each design entered circulation!

Find out which coins in the series have the lowest mintages here >>

50p Scarcity Index

The top of our Scarcity Index remains consistent with our last update with the Judo 50p sitting just below the Kew Gardens 50p.

However, there’s been a lot of shuffling in the middle and lower third of the index, with the Pentathlon 50p climbing 10 spots and the Taekwondo 50p dropping 10! Last index the Taekwondo 50p climbed 11 so it’s interesting to see it fall back down this quarter.

Now that we have the mintages for the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock) 50p and the 2019 Paddington coins, we’ve seen these enter the index relatively low.

Whilst both coins are relatively common (8,602,000 Sherlock Holmes 50ps entered circulation and 9,001,000 of each 2019 Paddington coins entered circulation) we’re excited to see how the confirmation of their mintages effects their place on our next Scarcity Index update…

£2 Scarcity Index

Once again we’ve seen a reshuffling of the Commonwealth Games coins at the top of the Index, with the Commonwealth Games Wales £2 climbing back into the top 4.

There’s been a fair bit of shuffling around in the rest of the index, with the Florence Nightingale £2 climbing 8 places this quarter! The Act of Union £2 has also dropped 6 places in this update. These are definitely the coins to watch over the next few quarters…

There’s no doubt that the Treasury’s announcement of having no plans to issue any £2 coins into circulation for the next 10 years has caused a bit of shuffling in this index and we’ll no doubt see this effect trickle into the next few updates.

How your Scarcity Index works

Generally collectors have had to rely upon mintage figures to identify the scarcest coins.  But they only tell part of the story.  Trying to find a good quality coin from 15 – 20 years ago, even for a higher mintage issue, is much more challenging than a more recent issue, as coins become damaged over time and are ultimately removed from circulation.

Additionally, some designs are more hoarded than others by people who might not normally collect coins – the poignant First World War £2 Coin series being an example. Finally, it can be up to a couple of years before the Royal Mint eventually confirms the actual mintage for an issue.

That’s why we have combined the mintage information with two other key pieces of information.

  • How many of each design are listed as “collected” by Change Checkers, indicating the relative ease of finding a particular coin.
  • The number of times a design has been requested as a swap over the previous 3 months, showing the current level of collector demand.

Importantly, as new coins are released and popularity rises and falls across different designs the Scarcity Index will be updated quarterly allowing Change Checkers to track the relative performance of the UK’s circulation coins.

How much are my coins worth?

The Scarcity Index does not necessarily equate to value but it is certainly an effective indicator.  For example, the Kew Gardens 50p coin commands a premium of up to 200 times face value on eBay.

You can use the 6 point guide to help you determine a more realistic value for your coins.

What about £1 Coins?

The £1 Scarcity Index has already been published for the Round £1 coins and, because they are no longer being issued, this is now set in stone.

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