over the past 6 months i have kept a check on the 50p coins in my change and the local post office and bank, one remarkable thing that has struck me is the dearth of "jigsaw" 50p coins i can find every type of commemorative and thousands of britannia's but no jigsaws.
I am trying to collect British coins, mostly through ebay, and I've never seen a 50 pence listed from 2002 or later. That seems kind of weird as I have most other denominations at least through 2009.
I have heard that too. According to the RM website, mintages for this 50p type are: 2008 ... 22,747,000 2009 ... none 2010 ... none which could explain it. I must say, I was amazed that there weren't circulating versions of these for 2009/10, just commems (but then again, only 10,000 2009 Kew and 510,090 2010 Girl Guides -- now those are really low numbers!) Typical minatges for Britannia before the change seemed to be around 25 million per year. Similar to the mere 3,487,000 1981 10p coins (I only ever found 4 or 5 of them myself in change), and just 682,103 1985 50p coins (around 3 or 4 in change, all heavily worn, as the 1985 portrait and lettering were in very low relief, fixed in 1986). Maybe people are hoarding them?
I've got one from circulation last time I visited the UK, but the friend I was with told me they are the most unfrequent he has encountered so far. Q
