The Royal Mint's Star Wars™ collection continues with the starship Millennium Falcon, originally flown by Han Solo and the Wookiee Chewbacca
The 50p coins are available as BU, BU Colour, Silver proof Colour, gold 50p, a 1/4oz gold coin and a variety of sets. The BU Colour Limited Edition mintage is 20,000. The .925 Silver Proof Limited Edition mintage is 7,500. There is also a 1oz Silver Proof (circular) coin with the same design.
The Reverse, designed by Lucasfilm Ltd, shows the Millennium Falcon. Text is "STAR WARS".
The Obverse is the portrait of King Charles III by Martin Jennings. Legend "CHARLES III D G REX F D 50 PENCE 2024".
Image credit: The Royal Mint
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Mintage: 7,500 (may include coins in sets)
Minted at The Royal Mint.
Charles has been married twice. His first marriage was to Diana, Princess of Wales. They married in 1981 and divorced in 1996. They had two children: William, Prince of Wales and hier to the throne, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. Charles' second marriage was to Queen Camilla in 2005.
Charles has a sister, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal; and two brothers: Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh.
On coins, King Charles decided to use the English spelling of his name where his predecessors of the same name used the Latin Carolus.
The British Fifty Pence (50p) coin was introduced in October 1969 as part of the decimalisation of the British currency. It replaced the 10 shilling note, both being equivalent to half of one pound (£0.50). It is colloquially called the '50 pee'. The coin has 7 sides (heptagonal) but has rounded corners on each apex so that the coin will roll and work in vending machines.
Originally, the coin has a diameter of 30mm and weighed 13.5g, but in 1997 this was replaced with a smaller version of diameter 27.3mm and weight of 8g. The thickness was kept at 1.78mm. The coin is made of Cupro-Nickel (75% copper, 25% nickel). The larger version was demonitised (i.e. ceased to be legal tender) in 1998.
There are four versions of the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II:
- 1969-1984 - Designer: Arnold Machin
- 1985-1997 - Designer: Raphael Maklouf
- 1998-2015 - Designer: Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS
- 2015-2022 - Designer: Jody Clark
There are also 29 different variants which were minted in 2011 in celebration of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Formed in the reign of Alfred the Great about the year 886, during the period 1279-1812 it was generally referred to as The Tower Mint as it was housed at the Tower of London. The Master of The Royal Mint has included famous figures such as Sir Isaac Newton.
Since 2010 it has operated as Royal Mint Ltd, a company owned by HM Treasury, under an exclusive contract to supply all coinage for the UK although it also produces medals and coins for other countries. It is currently located at Llantrisant, Wales.
The orignal coinage was Pounds, Shillings and Pence but since decimalisation on 15 February 1971, it is £1 = 100p, that is One Pound = 100 pence. The coinage of the UK is also a long history, the Royal Mint being established as long ago as 886AD when coins were hammered. Today there is perhaps 30 billion coins in circulation, and many (numismatic) collectors coins and sets are issued frequently in gold, silver and other metals.
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