UK 1999 Penny And 2 Pence, Bronze Vs Copper/Steel Varieties?

Hi greg

The situation regarding bronze 1999 pennies and 2 pence pieces is interesting .As far as I know the last bronze pennies were minted in 1991 and from 1992 onwards they are copper plated steel.So I doubt you will ever get a 1999 bronze penny.

The situation with 1999 bronze 2 pence coins is like this : only 2 pence coins in 1999 Uncirculated mint sets from The Royal Mint are bronze . So its best to buy a set for a 1999 bronze 2 pence (they go for very reasonable prices on ebay ). The 1999 pennies in those sets are copper plated steel ...... I dont know were the figures about the mintage of 1999 bronze coins came about but they are not true as there are no circulatiing 1999 bronze pennies or two pences here .......trust me I have gone over some with a magnet !

Hope that helps

This is very interesting. I've just tested my 1999 Royal Mint Uncirculated set and the 1p and 2p are both non-magnetic. The list of the coin specifications on the back of the package says the coins are bronze. On my 1993-98 and post-2000 sets, the 1p and 2p coins are magnetic and they are described on the packaging as 'copper-plated steel'. Never noticed this before.

I wonder whether there was a shortage of copper-plated steel blanks in late 1998, and this meant that The Royal Mint used bronze for the 1999 sets as well as for some of that year's circulating 2p coins? Mint sets are usually struck in the year before issue, as they are distributed by The Royal Mint in early January every year.



I am sure the Krause mintage figures are wrong - I've never found a 1999 bronze 1p or 2p in change, but 1998 bronze 2p coins are quite common, much more so than a mintage of 8,676,000 would suggest. The Royal Mint website gives the mintage of the 1998 bronze 2p as 98,676,000, which seems about right: it doesn't show either 1p or 2p coins struck in bronze for 1999, just 353,816,000 2p coins and 891,392,000 pennies.

http://www.royalmint.com/discover/u...penny-issued

Yes - I have a 1992 set - the 1p and 2p are bronze and it also says on the package that they are bronze.

Wow, thanks for everyone's help. Since I mostly collect type sets, I was looking more for the 1999 bronze 2 pence instead of the 1999 bronze 2 pence because it's reported, but clearly incorrect, mintage was 53 times higher! Now that I know what to look for, I am easily finding the 1998 bronze 2 pence on ebay.

I'll probably just pick up the 1999 uncirculated mint set NumisRob posted. That has the bronze penny KM926a and bronze 2 pence KM927a.

Michael Gouby lists the varieties see http://www.michael-coins.co.uk/GBdecimal2p.htm

Thanks for an interesting post on "foreign" coins.