Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Pence - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait, large type
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1985-1997 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | KM#940.1, Sp#H4 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Seated figure of Britannia facing left, helmeted and draped in classical robes, holding a trident upright in her left hand and extending an olive branch in her right hand. A Union shield rests against her left side, and a lion couchant is depicted to the right at her feet. The design, executed by Christopher Ironside, is centrally placed within the heptagonal field. The legend FIFTY PENCE arcs along the upper periphery, while the numeral 50 appears in the exergue below the base line. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The large 50p was already an outlier by 1985 — the heptagonal format had been introduced in 1969 specifically to allow vending machines to distinguish it by touch, but by the mid-1980s pressure was mounting to reduce its bulk. The Royal Mint resisted for over a decade before finally issuing a smaller 27.3mm replacement in 1997, at which point the large type was demonetised almost immediately — an unusually short window between replacement and legal tender withdrawal that caught some holders off guard.