10 Pence - Charles III Capercaillie Silver Proof (2023–2026)

About the 2023 10 Pence - Charles III Capercaillie – Silver Proof

The 2023 10 Pence - Charles III Capercaillie – Silver Proof is a collector 10 pence coin issued from 2023 to 2026, struck in 92.5% silver. It weighs 6.5g and measures 24.5mm across. Reverse design: Capercaillie, a large and rare woodland Grouse, denomination over royal cypher design at left.

Common questions

History and design

This is a collector version of the 10 Pence - Charles III Capercaillie. The history below is that coin's; the mintage, varieties and collecting notes on its page do not apply to this strike.

The Capercaillie 10p is the definitive 10p of King Charles III, one of eight new designs from the 1p to the £2 that the Royal Mint unveiled on 12 October 2023 on a theme of British plants and animals. Coins dated 2023 were struck for circulation, but only 600,000 of them, and they were not released for almost three years.

On 25 August 2026 the Mint announced that those 600,000 coins and a further 6,500,000 dated 2026 were entering circulation because of increased demand for the 10p. It was the first 10p to circulate with the King's portrait and the fourth denomination to do so, after the 5p, 50p and £1. The Mint's figures show none dated 2024.

At 600,000 the 2023 date has the lowest figure for a standard 10p in the Royal Mint's data, well below the 3,487,000 of 1981. The lowest 10p coins overall remain the W, Y and Z designs of the 2019 A to Z series, at 63,000 each.

The reverse shows a capercaillie with the inscription 10 PENCE and a large numeral, set against a repeating pattern of three interlocking C's that runs across all eight coins and refers to the cypher of Charles II. The Royal Mint describes the bird as the world's largest grouse, found in a small part of Scotland. It became extinct in Britain once before, in the mid eighteenth century, and the Mint says it is a Red List species at real risk of being lost a second time. With just over seven million coins released, the Mint pointed out that there would be more capercaillies in people's change than left in the wild.

The Mint credits the reverse to its own team and says the design is based on an illustration by Mike Langman, an artist who previously worked for the RSPB. The obverse carries the King's coinage portrait by Martin Jennings with the inscription CHARLES III DEI GRA REX FID DEF and the date. The coin is nickel-plated steel with a milled edge.