UK 50 Pence Commemorative Hunting

Nice find, NumisRob.

I needed to go to the bank today and decided on the spur of the moment to get some 50p coins to sort through. The cashier let me have £150 worth - 300 coins.

I expected to find about 15 commemorative coins. Imagine how surprised I was to find that several of the £10 bags contained predominately commemoratives. It must have been a collection dump! I ended up with 150 commemoratives (half of the total!) plus several miscellaneous coins! The photo shows the miscellaneous coins at the top, the normal definitive coins in two rows and the commemoratives in three rows.

Summary of commemorative coins found:
1994 D-Day 1 (this is a large-size 50p, no longer legal tender!)
1998 NHS 3
1998 EU 2
2000 Libraries 6
2004 Roger Bannister 4
2005 Dictionary 18
2006 Victoria Cross (soldier) 1
2006 Victoria Cross (medal) 5
2007 Scouts 4
2010 Girl Guides 4
2011 Olympics 3 (Cycling, Equestrian, Triathlon)
2013 Christopher Ironside 6
2014 Commonwealth Games 1
2015 Battle of Britain 1
2016 Team GB 4
2016 Battle of Hastings 4
2016 Beatrix Potter 2
2016 Peter Rabbit 4
2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck 1
2016 Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 5
2017 Benjamin Bunny 12
2017 Tom Kitten 5
2017 Mr Jeremy Fisher 4
2017 Tale of Peter Rabbit 5
2018 Representation of the People 3
2018 Paddington at the Station 1
2018 Mrs Tittlemouse 1
2018 Peter Rabbit 2
2018 Tailor of Gloucester 1
2019 Paddington at the Tower 5
2019 Paddington at St Paul's 5
2019 Sherlock Holmes 3
2020 Brexit 6
2020 Diversity 12
2022 Platinum Jubilee 1

Other interesting coins
1977 UK 50p 1 (large size, no longer legal tender)
Jersey 2006 2
Gibraltar 2008 1
East Caribbean $1 (wrong shape!) 1

There were 301 coins altogether so the smaller and lighter East Caribbean dollar was probably not picked up by the scales at the bank.

There's nothing really rare, but the Jemima Puddle-Duck coins can sell for up to £10 on ebay, and the 2018 Peter Rabbit coins are very scarce (mintage 1,400,000). I've only ever found one previously in all the time since they were issued. The Britannia Coin Company sells them for £20 each!

Many of the coins from 2011-6 were in virtually BU condition, making me wonder if they had been put aside at the time.

Nice results.

Outstanding!

This is an update of my 50 pence 'noodling' - I have now checked through 20,000 50 pence coins since lockdown (all in bags from the bank)

TOTAL CHECKED 20000

Definitive coins:

1997 6614
1998 1315
1999 420
2000 424
2001 1347
2002 406
2003 386
2004 649
2005 466
2006 353
2007 243
2008 Britannia 65
2008 Shield 380
2012 905
2013 407
2014 1049
2015 Rank-Broadley 468
2015 Jody Clark 899
2017 27
2019 1394
2020 62
2022 1
TOTAL 18280

Commemorative coins:
1998 NHS 13
1998 EU 19
2000 Libraries 60
2003 Suffragettes 9
2004 Roger Bannister 40
2005 Dictionary 162
2006 VC Soldier 49
2006 VC Medal 74
2007 Scouts 48
2009 Kew Gardens 0
2010 Guides 46
2011 WWF 12
2011 Olympics (see below) 72
2013 Ironside 63
2013 Benjamin Britten 22
2014 Games 28
2015 Battle of Britain 29
2016 Team GB 60
2016 Battle of Hastings 51
2016 Beatrix Potter 19
2016 Peter Rabbit 23
2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck 9
2016 Squirrel Nutkin 12
2016 Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 73
2017 Isaac Newton 3
2017 Benjamin Bunny 146
2017 Tom Kitten 51
2017 Mr Jeremy Fisher 37
2017 Tale of Peter Rabbit 98
2018 Representation of People 54
2018 Paddington at Palace 25
2018 Paddington at Station 17
2018 Mrs Tittlemouse 5
2018 Peter Rabbit 4
2018 Flopsy Bunny 6
2018 Tailor of Gloucester 12
2019 Paddington at Tower 28
2019 Paddington at St Paul's 51
2019 Sherlock Holmes 19
2020 Brexit 37
2020 Diversity 62
2022 Pride 8
2022 Platinum Jubilee 6
2022 Charles III 4 shields 16
2023 Charles III Coronation 6
TOTAL 1684

Others:

1977 old large size 2
1994 old large size, D-Day Commemorative 1
1997 Jersey 6
2006 Jersey 4
2009 Jersey 1
2012 Jersey 3
1997 Guernsey 4
2008 Guernsey 1
1997 Isle of Man 2
2010 Isle of Man 1
2012 Isle of Man 1
2015 Isle of Man 2
2016 Isle of Man 1
1997 Gibraltar 2
2001 Gibraltar 1
2008 Gibraltar 1
2015 Gibraltar 1
2017 Gibraltar (referendum commemorative) 1
1997 Hungary 50 Forint 1
TOTAL 36

GRAND TOTAL 20000

Olympics:
[Aquatics (4), Archery (7), Athletics (2), Badminton, Basketball (2), Boccia (3), Boxing (2), Canoeing (4), Cycling (6), Equestrian (2), Fencing (2), Football, Goalball, Gymnastics (4), Handball (3), Hockey (2), Judo (2), Pentathlon, Sailing, Shooting (2), Table-Tennis (2), Taekwondo (3), Tennis (2), Triathlon (5), Volleyball (2), Weightlifting (2), Wheelchair Rugby (2), Wrestling]

The larger 50 pence coins minted before 1997 have been officially demonetised. The Hungarian 50-Forint coin is approximately the right weight, but isn't even round!

Nice results, NumisRob.

I think I'd need to check through about 50,000 for an evens chance of getting one. The mintage figure for the Kew Gardens is 210,000. The 2017 Royal shield and Isaac Newton are both 1.8 million - but the latter is hoarded, being a commemorative, and the former is not. One would expect to see about one Kew Gardens coin for eight Isaac Newtons.

Another coin I have never found in circulation is the Charles III 'definitive' 2023 50p with the salmon on the reverse: it has a mintage of 210,000.

During the course of the survey I have found one unopened sealed £10 bag of 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p's, one of 2018 Representation of the People 50p's and one of 2019 definitive shield 50p's - I did not count any of these towards the totals.