2005 Fifty Pence

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Two different 50p coins were issued in 2005. The standard Britannia design and a commemorative coin to mark the 250th anniversary of Johnson’s English dictionary.

The Standard Design:

Obverse Type 4 (bust design by Ian Rank-Broadley):

50p2000obv

Reverse Type 3 (design by Christopher Ironside):

50p2000rev

Mintage for Circulation: 25,363,500.

Collectability/Scarcity: 1 (for scale details see here)

The story behind the design:

The obverse portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley was used on all UK coinage from 1998 to 2014 and also on some coins dated 2015. It was the fourth portrait of the Queen used on coinage.

The reverse design, by Christopher Ironside, shows Briannia seated. Britannia had appeared on at least one British coin denomination since the 1670s, and in fact long before that there were Roman coins showing the word ‘BRITANNIA’ and the helmeted female representation of Britannia to celebrate the Roman capture of Britain.

 

Commemorative 50p coin, Type 9: (info on coin type numbers here)

Obverse Type 4 (bust design by Ian Rank-Broadley):

50p2000obv

Reverse Type (design by Mary Milner Dickens):

50p2005revdict

Mintage for Circulation: 17,649,000.

Collectability/Scarcity: 1 (for scale details see here)

The story behind the design:

The obverse portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley was used on all UK coinage from 1998 to 2014 and also on some coins dated 2015. It was the fourth portrait of the Queen used on coinage.

The reverse design, by Tom Phillips shows parts of the dictionary definitions for the words ‘Fifty’ and ‘Pence’. Under this is ‘JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY 1755’. Samuel Johnson’s famous dictionary of 1755 contained 40,000 words and took eight years to complete:

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/dic/johnson/1755johnsonsdictionary.html

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