We’ve some nifty facts to mark coin’s history
THESE days it wouldn’t even buy you a pint in a pub, but 50 years ago you’d have been minted if you had a 50p.
Back in 1969, when the coin was launched, it could have bought you five beers down the boozer – with change to spare!
To mark its half-century tomorrow, brings us 15 fascinating facts about the seven-sided coin.
It made its debut on October 14, 1969, aimed at replacing the 10 shilling note ahead of the introduction of decimal currency to the UK in 1971. As the world’s first seven-sided coin, it was designed to be easily recognisable from the round coins in your pocket. The shape was officially an “equilateral curve heptagon”. Rejected versions included a 12-sided coin and even a square one.
An image of Britannia was chosen for on one side with the Queen on the other. Four portraits of Her Majesty have been used.
The original version was larger, with a diameter of 30mm, and weighed 13.5g. Today’s version, introduced in 1997, measures 27.5mm and weighs eight grammes. It is made from 75% copper and 25% nickel, called cupronickel. When each 50p coin is minted it is struck with at least 100 tonnes of force.
In 1969, some 120million 50p coins were put into circulation. Today there are believed to be about 948million of them out there.
There have been many different designs on the 50p to commemorate events including D-Day, the NHS and the introduction of the Victoria Cross medal. There were 29 designs released to mark the 2012 London Olympics each featuring a different sport. One of them explained the offside rule in football.
In 2012 staff at the Royal Mint set a Guinness World Record for coin tossing by flipping a total of 1,697 50p pieces in the air at the same time.
Fictional heroes celebrated on the coin include the Gruffalo, The Snowman and Sherlock Holmes. Real people include Stephen Hawking and Sir Isaac Newton. A rare Peter Rabbit coin recently sold at auction for more than £800, while a leaked 50p, featuring Paddington bear, sold on eBay last year for £16,000. Many specially minted 50p coins can be worth hundreds to collectors.
The rarest 50p coin in general circulation is the Kew Gardens one – only
210,000 were made. But just
20,000 special Disney coins are being released this autumn and there are plans for millions of coins marking Brexit to be released too.
When the 50p went into circulation singer Bobby Gentry was at No1 with the track I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, while The Beatles’ Abbey Road was topping the album chart. That evening, hit police show Z Cars was on telly.
In 1969 your 50p coin was worth the equivalent of about £8 in today’s money and the average male wage was £30 a week. The price of a pint was about 10p, milk was 4p and a loaf of bread 8p. The new Ford Capri would have set you back 1,780 worth of 50p coins and the average house 9,000.