A History of Britannia on UK Coinage

The allegorical figure of Britannia has had a presence on our coins from as early as the Roman era, to as recently as the end of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Let’s take a closer look into the history of Britannia on our coinage, and why some coins she features on may be worth keeping an eye on! 

A collection of UK coins featuring Britannia
A collection of UK coins featuring Britannia

Britannia’s debut on coins

Britannia is a fictional representation of Britain itself, and first appeared on our coins in Roman times.

This original interpretation of her can be seen wielding a spear and a shield on the rocks, and was created during the reign of Emperor Hadrian all the way back in 119 AD. She remained on Roman coins for some time, but later vanished from our coinage for 1,532 years!

Roman coins featuring Britannia
Roman coins featuring Britannia

A millennium later

In 1672, King Charles II brought Britannia back to lift the nations’ spirits. Seen over the waves, she keeps a spear in one hand, but this time holds an olive sprig in the other, as a symbol of peace. The shield remains, perched at her side, but it’s now embellished with the union flag.

1672 Farthing Reverse
Credit: Numista

At this point in time, the work of the navy was especially crucial in securing power, trade and success, and Britannia’s image became an emblem of Britain’s maritime prowess. This was further cemented by iterations of Britannia from 1797 onwards showing her with a trident in her left hand instead of a spear.

1797 Penny Reverse
Credit: The Royal Mint Museum

Her portrait changed once again in 1825, where she can be seen facing the opposite way, with the addition of a Roman helmet, a nod to her origins on Roman coins

1825 1/2 Penny Reverse
Credit: Numista

Many monarchs featured Britannia consistently on their coinage after her reintroduction in 1672 until 1971, mostly on bronze or copper coins. In 1987, her likeness was even used for gold bullion coins by the Royal Mint.

Britannia on UK decimal coins

Since it’s decimal introduction in 1969, Britannia could be found on definitive 50p coins all the way up to 2008, when her portrait was replaced by the Royal Shield design. This change caused an uproar within the coin collecting community and beyond, and even lead to a petition, as many felt she should remain on our 50p coin. 

1969 Britannia 50p
1969 Britannia 50p

After a small break from circulating coinage, Britannia made a triumphant return as the face of the definitive £2 coin which was released in 2015. 

2016 Britannia £2
2016 Britannia £2

The rarest definitive £2

This coin would go on to become the rarest definitive £2 coin to date, with the 2015 Britannia £2 coin securing a mintage of only 650,000! But why were so few minted?

Well both Technology and Britannia designs entered circulation in 2015, and with a massive 35,360,058 Technologies minted, there wasn’t the demand for a large amount of Britannias. The following year, only 2,925,000 Britannia £2s were minted, but after that, we didn’t see any new ones in our change until 2021 and 2022.

2015 Britannia £2
The 2015 Britannia £2 has a mintage figure of just 650,000

According to our most recent eBay Tracker, a 2015 dated Britannia £2 can fetch you as much as £6.24 on the secondary market, that’s over x3 its face value!  

There is also an error version of this coin you can look out for, where the portrait on the obverse of the coin is misaligned by a 150 degree angle! 

The 2015 £2 isn’t the only rare coin to feature Britannia however – as the 2008 Britannia 50p has a mintage of just 3,500,000 – which is far less than previous years! The mintage was so low in fact, that it brought down the average of the Britannia 50p as a whole, causing it to become ‘Less common’ on our Scarcity Index. 

Will we see Britannia again?

Do you have any coins featuring Britannia in your collection? Perhaps you even have one of the rare or error versions of these coins, comment below!

This year, we can expect to see the new King Charles III definitive £2 entering circulation, so I wonder if we’ll see Britannia again on our circulating coins? Let us know what you think…


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£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…

Why you should be collecting £2 coins

With some truly fantastic releases recently, the UK has fallen head over heels for the 50p, with many collectors focusing on hunting down these seven sided gems for their collection.

But whilst collectors are busy scouring their change to find the latest and greatest 50p releases, the £2 coin, it seems, has taken a bit of a back seat…

So why should you be collecting £2 coins?

In this blog, we’ll take a look at which rare coins should take pride of place in your collection, which potential error coins might be out there and we’ll also share with you our top three £2 coins to look out for.

Rare and Error Coins

With over 37 different UK £2 coin designs in circulation, it’s worth paying attention to the £2 coins in your change, as you never know when you might come across something extra special…

2002 Commonwealth Games NI £2

The UK’s rarest £2 in circulation

The 2002 Commonwealth Games England £2 Coin is officially the most scarce £2 coin in the UK, ranking as 100 on our Scarcity Index.

Four coins were released in 2002 to celebrate the Commonwealth Games and at first glance, you might struggle to spot the difference between them. They all feature the same running athlete trailing a banner behind. But each has a different cameo, representing each of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom.

The fact that this coin is so hard to spot and has such a low mintage of just 485,500 means that the Commonwealth Games NI £2 is the holy grail of £2 coin collections.

2015 Britannia £2

Britannia 1 300x300 - Happy Birthday to the £2 coin!
Antony Dufort’s modern interpretation of Britannia.

It wasn’t until 2016, when The Mint released the mintage figures for the 2015 coins, that collectors realised just how special the new definitive £2 coin was.

Only 650,000 of the 2015 date Britannia £2 coins had been stuck for circulation, making it one of the most scarce UK £2 coins ever issued! So scarce in fact that there were fewer of this coin than the England and the Scotland coins from the famous 2002 Commonwealth Games series.

This makes the 2015 Britannia £2 joint third scarcest £2 coin in circulation, alongside the Navy £2.

Inverted Effigy Britannia £2

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First discovered by a Change Checker, and later confirmed as a genuine error by The Royal Mint, this unusual strike appears on a handful of the 2015 Britannia £2 Coins.

The Royal Mint has accounted for the seemingly impossible misalignment of the Queen’s effigy as almost certainly the result of one of the dies working loose and rotating during the striking process”.

The result is that the Queen’s head is offset by around 150 degrees compared to the Britannia design on the reverse of the coin.

We analysed 5,000 circulation Britannia £2 coins and our results suggested that the Inverted Effigy may have affected as few as 1 in 200 of the coins struck – in other words around just 3,250 coins.

2015 Navy with Flag

st change checker royal navy 2 mis strike with arrows - Is there an even rarer version of the Navy £2 in circulation?

We already know the 2015 Navy is one of the rarest £2 coins with just 650,000 struck for circulation, however Change Checkers have speculated whether there are two different design variations…

The original Navy £2 design (left) shows the coin without any markings on the top right of the mast, but the coin on the right looks like it has a flying flag.

The Royal Mint strike up to 5 billion coins a year and from time to time cracks on the die cause pools of metal to form on the coin whilst striking. It just so happens that this bit of metal has caused the markings on these coins to look like a flying flag on the ship – fuelling speculation that two different variations were struck.

Whilst it doesn’t add any extra value to the coin, it’s certainly one to look out for and makes for interesting collecting.

2005 ‘Pemember, Pemember’ Gunpowder Plot £2 

gunpowder plot c2a32 stack - Always 'Pemember' the facts about rare £2 coins
The edge inscription of the Gunpowder Plot £2 appears to be spelt incorrectly

The 2005 Gunpowder Plot £2 commemorates the 400th anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ failed assassination attempt on King James I, but the coin is more familiar to collectors for having a spelling mistake in the edge inscription. The timeless quote “Remember, remember the fifth of November” has been found with various combinations of Pemember, Pemembep, Novemebep and so on. The common factor here is the ‘R’ which appears as a ‘P’.

Sadly for collectors this is apparently not a striking error. The explanation from the Royal Mint is that the down-stroke of the R coincides with the milling around the edge, and as the coin has worn over time, the letter has become less defined. This categorical statement from the Mint means that any mark-up in price for a supposed ‘error’ is completely unjustified, and although it makes the coin more interesting, it is not the mistake which it is often perceived to be.

1997 Maklouf ‘Queen with a Necklace’ £2

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The Maklouf ‘Necklace’ £2 was only issued in 1997

The ‘Queen with a Necklace’ £2 has an enduring legacy in the collecting world. The very first bi-metallic £2 coins were issued in 1997, just prior to the Queen’s portrait change in 1998. This meant that the older portrait by Raphael Maklouf was only used for one year: 1997. His version featured Queen Elizabeth II wearing a necklace, which is how the nickname was derived.

When the portrait change was announced, the new £2 coins were snapped up by collectors believing them to be a future rarity. As it turned out, a mintage of nearly 14 million means the ‘Queen with a Necklace’ £2 is not one of the rarest coins in circulation. Nevertheless, with only one year of issue, it still holds an undeniable interest for collectors.

2007 Abolition of Slavery £2

slave trade c2a32 compare - Always 'Pemember' the facts about rare £2 coins

There is a misconception that there were two types of the Abolition of Slavery £2 coin struck for circulation. It is true that two versions of the coins exist – one has a textured finish whereas the other has a smooth finish and features the artist, David Gentleman’s initials (circled).

The key difference is that only the textured version was struck for circulation, and if you find one of the smoother types in your change, you have actually found a coin which has been taken out of a presentation pack. This makes it considerably rarer than the circulating version, so it is worth keeping rather than spending!

The Top Three £2 Coins to Collect

When it comes to collecting, £2 coins are some of our favourites to look out for, but out of the rare and wonderful coins mentioned above, here are our top three £2 coins to collect.

1) It’s no surprise that the UK’s scarcest £2 coin in circulation should come in first place, but you’ll not only have to be very lucky to come across one, you’ll also have to be eagle eyed to spot the correct flag for the Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland £2 coin.

2) Coming in close second is the third scarcest £2 coin, but can you challenge yourself to see if you can find one with the ‘flag’ variation as mentioned above?

3) And as our third placed coin, the 2015 Britannia actually sits in joint third place as the UK’s scarcest £2 in circulation and our challenge to you is to try and find the inverted effigy of this coin too!

Check out how we got on with our own £2 coin hunt and all the fantastic designs we were able to find in a £500 bank bag:

The £2 coins that haven’t entered circulation…

You may have noticed a lack of 2017 coins in your change, as to date The Royal Mint haven’t confirmed if they will enter circulation.

This all depends on demand for specific denominations at the time as UK Banks and Post Offices may not request every denomination every year if there is already sufficient coin in circulation.

Based on The Royal Mint’s figures, we do know that no 2017 Britannia coins were struck for circulation. But there have been 13 other coins designs issued since 2017 that we are yet to find in our change, including:

  • Jane Austen
  • WW1 Aviation
  • Frankenstein
  • Armistice
  • RAF Badge
  • RAF Spitfire
  • RAF Vulcan
  • RAF Sea King
  • RAF Lightning
  • Captain Cook
  • Samuel Pepys
  • D-Day Landings
  • Wedgwood

All of these coins are available to purchase in Brilliant Uncirculated quality here, but we will of course be the first to update you as soon as we have more information on their potential release.

A Treasure Hunt

It can be quite a challenge tracking down every single £2 coin for a complete collection. Remember, if you’re struggling to find those last few coins in your change, you can source them online, in auctions, on Facebook coin groups and of course by swapping with like-minded collectors on our web app.


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