The Royal Mint released the final 2016 mintage figures today. They are:
£2 WWI Army: 9,550,000
£2 Fire of London: 5,135,000
£2 Shakespeare Comedies (Jester hat): 4,355,000
£2 Shakespeare Histories (Crown and Dagger): 4,615,000
£2 Shakespeare Tragedies (Skull and Rose): 5,695,000
£2 Britannia: 2,925,000
£1 New 12-sided: ? Not Known (hundreds of millions likely)
£1 Last Round Pound: 0 for circulation, found in sets only
£1 Standard Shield: 0 for circulation, found in sets only
50p Standard Shield: 0 for circulation, found in sets only
50p Team GB: 6,400,000
50p Battle of Hastings: 6,700,000
50p Beatrix Potter name: 6,900,000
50p Rabbit: 9,600,000
50p Duck: 2,100,000
50p Hedgehog: 8,800,000
50p Squirrel: 5,000,000
20p: 161,000,000
10p: 135,200,000
5p: 308,200,000
2p: 185,200,000
1p: 371,002,000
Very big numbers all-round and no surprises – i.e. coins with under one million mintage (that people seem to go bonkers over for some reason). I find it odd that the figure for the standard £2 coin is dwarfed by the total mintage of the commemorative £2 coins. There seems to be little point of making a standard coin at all, when clearly the aim of the Royal Mint seems to be to make as many different commemorative coin types as they possibly can.
People will no doubt go mad for the 3 coins that were made for sets only. My opinion is that in years to come those will be the ones that will be among the most common in as-new condition. They will exist in the many sets produced and very few will get spent. In the past, the coins that have proven to be the hardest to find and often most expensive to buy in as-new condition are actually the exact opposite, i.e. coins that were not included in annual sets and only went into circulation – the most striking example being the 1999 standard £2 coin (not the Rugby one) which is almost completely unheard of on very good condition.
The Check Your Change admin is Mr C H Perkins, publisher of numismatic publications in printed and eBook format. Author of "Collectors' Coins - Decimal Issues of the UK" and other books on British coins and related subjects.
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