Uk~ Interesting Find From The Circulation In The Uk~

Interesting thread. I do like comemmoratives however I think the problems Collector28 mentions are the same in Australia as well. Been chasing the 2020 Qantas $1 coin. Meant for circulation but apparently only available as of February at RAM coin swaps. Loads available on E-bay at 3x face value. How does that make it a "circulating coin" if only given out to collectors (and investors)? Also the 2020 $2 75 years WW2. Two million minted but most rolls seem to have landed with E-bayers selling for profit.
Anyway, I recently acquired some UK loose shrapneland among them was Paddington at the station which I thought was adorable so looked into some more of the Brit coinage. Any commemoratives selling in Oz have OTT prices and it seems I will have next to no chance of getting them from UK sellers without costing and arm and a torso.
PS Also think the RAM has lost the plot with the number of special issue NCCs.

And this, again pulled from change 30+ years ago.
If you consider how small a pound coin is, that incuse 'R4' is so tiny as to be almost unnoticeable. Odd.
Any thoughts?

I don't think it's engraved, it's too deep and perfectly formed for something rendered freehand. It looks punched. Also, why would someone, practising their engraving skills, choose to write no more than 'R4', one letter, one number, each a millimetre or so high, on a pound coin?

Heavens, sorry, that wasn't the intention at all! I thank you 100% for your reply.
I just wanted to add a few thoughts to the mix so as to possibly widen the conversation. I've not seen anything similar since finding it in my change and, even after 30 years, I've not been able to come up with a logical reason why this pound coin would have 'R4' stamped on it in letters/numbers no larger than a pin head. It certainly is a mystery.

Got my first Brexit 50p and Magna Carta £2 today, albeit not through finding them - late birthday present off a friend! Getting this means that I now have every circulating £2 design, which is a major milestone

Not bad at all! I stumbled across your banknote video the other day...absolutely awesome! You've quite the impressive collection (was most fished from circulation?)

On the subject of the 1974 50p - yes the prices of the sets have gone crazy lately, largely because Westminster coins did a Newspaper ad offering them at a high price and giving the spiel about them being rare and only in proof set. This is true, however something like 100,000 sets issued, is not that rare and for ages they have sold consistently around the £10 mark.

Even more silly is that the 50ps for many other years are also "set only" issues, but the prices for these years have not changed. People have fallen for the hype yet again!

For info, as far as I am aware all these years are Set only 50ps:
1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 1984, 1986 to 1991, 1993 (ordinary design), 1995 and 1996. (In 1993 there was also the EU presidency 50p, which was circulation as well as sets and is much scarcer!)

On the R4 - my thought would be that it was someone using the £1 as a test piece of metal. The R4 punch was probably for stamping something else altogether - watch parts? Small tools? Medical equipment? In receipt of a new punch the user wanted to check it worked ok and grabbed a £1 from his pocket for want of anything else...