Commemorative coins of the United Kingdom

Commemorative coins have been issued by the Royal Mint in the United Kingdom since 1935. Initially they only came out to mark events of great interest, but since the turn of the millennium have been minted yearly.

Contents

• Crowns
• Five Pounds
• Fifty Pence
• Two Pounds
• References

Until decimalisation crowns (five shilling coins) were used for this purpose as they were the highest denomination of the time, but due to inflation this rôle has been transferred to higher value coins.

Crowns, £5 Coins and (until 1996) £2 Coins are non-circulating, although they are still legal tender. These denominations are only used for commemoratives. During the decimal era, crowns were converted to twenty-five pence.

50p and recent £2 Coins circulate normally and can be found in change. Usually about 5 million of each of these are the commemorative issue, the rest being of the standard design.

Since 1982 all of these have also been produced as Sterling silver and 22 carat Gold proofs.

Although the design of the £1 Coin changes every year, these are not considered to be commemoratives, as they do not mark an event or its anniversary.