1 Penny - Elizabeth II 4th portrait magnetic (1998–2008)

One row for each year the 1 Penny - Elizabeth II 4th portrait – magnetic was struck. Prices are medians of verified sold listings matched to that year from the listing: circulated is worn condition up to Extremely Fine, uncirculated is About Uncirculated or better. A count in brackets means fewer than three sales behind the figure; a grey figure marked "type" is the median across every year, shown where that year has no sale of its own yet; years with no sales yet fill in as sales are recorded. Most types have been searched year by year only since October 2026, so later years are still filling in. Use the grade table below for a price by condition across all years.

About the 1998 1 Penny - Elizabeth II – magnetic

The 1998 1 Penny - Elizabeth II – magnetic is a circulating 1 penny coin issued from 1998 to 2008, struck in copper plated steel. It weighs 3.56g and measures 20.3mm across. Reverse design: A crowned portcullis with chains (an adaptation of the Badge of Henry VII, now the Badge of the Palace of Westminster), denomination around.

Mintage figures are recorded for 11 years between 1998 and 2008, 7,290,451,000 coins in all. 2008 is the scarcest date, with 180,600,000 struck.

Common questions

History and design

A new portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley was introduced on the coinage in 1998, and the penny carried it with the existing reverse for eleven years. By then the 1p had been made of copper-plated steel for six years, the Royal Mint having given up bronze in September 1992 as metal prices rose.

Pennies were struck in very large numbers in these years. The Royal Mint's figures run from 739,770,000 for 1998 to a peak of 1,060,420,000 for 2000, the only year apart from 1971 in which more than a billion pennies were struck. Output then settled at between 524,605,000 and 739,764,000 a year from 2002 to 2007.

The last date is 2008, when 180,600,000 portcullis pennies were struck before Matthew Dent's Royal Shield design replaced it. The eleven years total 7,290,451,000.

The reverse is the one Christopher Ironside designed for the decimal penny of 1971: a portcullis with chains royally crowned, with ONE PENNY above and the figure 1 below. The Royal Mint Museum records that Ironside's reverses remained in use for 40 years, until Dent's designs were introduced in 2008, so this type is the last appearance of the portcullis on a circulating penny of Elizabeth II.

The obverse shows the Rank-Broadley portrait with his initials IRB below the bust and the legend ELIZABETH II D G REG F D and the date. The edge is plain, and the coin weighs 3.56g at 20.3mm across.

Varieties and errors

Tony Clayton records two versions of the portcullis reverse, told apart by the bolts where the bars cross: raised dots on Die A, incuse circles on Die B. On his listing Die B alone was used from 1998 to 2006, both dies are common for 2007, and Die A is the commoner in 2008. He also notes differing counts of border beads, with a scarcer bead arrangement among coins dated 2000.

Collecting notes

Every date of this type circulates and none is scarce by mintage. In the Royal Mint's figures 2008 is the lowest, at roughly a third of the next lowest year, 2006.

One related coin is worth knowing. Clayton states, on information from the Royal Mint, that the penny in the 1999 proof set was struck in bronze, which the catalogue lists as the 1999 non-magnetic set issue. A 1999 penny from change should be attracted to a magnet.

A 2008 penny with a section of the Royal Arms on the reverse is the Royal Shield type. Clayton also lists silver proofs of the portcullis design dated 2000, 2006 and 2008, gold proofs of 2002 and 2008 and a platinum proof of 2008.