UK 50p Coins Worth Looking for in Your Change

Every coin here was struck for general circulation, so each one can still turn up at a checkout, in a parking machine or in a jar of change anywhere in the UK. The list runs from the smallest circulation mintage to the largest, which is the most honest guide to how often you will meet each design: the first handful are genuine long shots, the middle are the gaps most albums take months to fill, and the last few are easy finds chosen for the story on the coin. Mintages are the Royal Mint's circulation figures. They leave out the proof, silver, gold and brilliant uncirculated versions sold to collectors, which never reach change, and a design struck only in those versions is not here. The old large 50p coins, including the 1973 and 1994 commemoratives, were withdrawn after the smaller coin arrived in 1997, so they are left out too, along with the most plentiful designs that fill themselves. Treat sky-high online asking prices with suspicion: a figure in a listing is not a sale.