20 Pence - Elizabeth II 4th portrait Tudor Rose (1998–2008)

One row for each year the 20 Pence - Elizabeth II 4th portrait – Tudor Rose 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 20 Pence - Elizabeth II – Tudor Rose

The 1998 20 Pence - Elizabeth II – Tudor Rose is a circulating 20 pence coin issued from 1998 to 2008, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 5g and measures 21.4mm across. Reverse design: Crowned Tudor rose dividing date and legend, denomination below.

Mintage figures are recorded for 11 years between 1998 and 2008, 1,170,215,000 coins in all. 2008 is the scarcest date, with 11,900,000 struck.

Common questions

History and design

The 20p was added to the coinage on 9 June 1982. The Royal Mint explains that by the end of the 1970s the decimal coinage was widely thought too heavy, and a 20p would cut the number of 10p coins people needed to carry. It was made seven-sided, an equilateral curve heptagon like the 50p, to avoid confusion with coins of similar size.

This is the third and last version of the original design. William Gardner's reverse had been paired with Arnold Machin's portrait from 1982 and Raphael Maklouf's from 1985. In 1998 Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait took over, and the combination lasted until the reverse was replaced in 2008.

A circulating issue was struck in every one of the eleven years. The Royal Mint's figures range from 73,478,750 for 1999 to 153,383,750 for 2003, then drop to 11,900,000 for 2008, when most of the year's 20p coins carried Matthew Dent's new design. The total is 1,170,215,000.

Gardner's reverse is formally the Badge of England, a royally crowned double rose: the Tudor rose under a crown. The figure 20 is below, the date is above, and TWENTY PENCE is set into a raised border with the lettering incuse, sunk into the metal instead of standing up from it.

The obverse has ELIZABETH II above the Rank-Broadley portrait and D. G. REG. F. D. below. The coin is 21.4mm across, weighs 5g and has a plain edge. Its cupro-nickel is 84% copper and 16% nickel, a different mix from the 75% copper of the 5p and 10p. Tony Clayton reports that the alloy was chosen so that vending machines could tell the coin apart by its electrical conductivity.

Collecting notes

The date worth separating out is 2008. In the Royal Mint's figures its 11,900,000 is less than a sixth of the next lowest year of this type, 1999, and the second lowest figure for any circulating 20p. Look at the reverse to be sure: the 2008 Royal Shield 20p, with 115,022,000 struck, is the common coin of that year.

This type also supplied half of a well-known error. Because the date sits on the reverse of the Tudor rose coin, its obverse die has none, and when one was paired with the new shield reverse in 2008 the result was the undated 20p. A normal coin of this type always shows a date above the rose.

Clayton lists silver proofs of the design dated 2000, 2006 and 2008, gold proofs of 2002 and 2008 and a platinum proof of 2008. No recognised varieties or mint errors are documented for the Tudor rose coin itself.