5 Pence - Elizabeth II 5th portrait Royal Shield (2015–2022)

One row for each year the 5 Pence - Elizabeth II 5th portrait – Royal Shield 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 2015 5 Pence - Elizabeth II – Royal Shield

The 2015 5 Pence - Elizabeth II – Royal Shield is a circulating 5 pence coin issued from 2015 to 2022 in the Royal Shield series, struck in nickel plated steel. It weighs 3.25g and measures 18mm across. Reverse design: Centre section of the Royal Shield, denomination central.

Mintage figures are recorded for 8 years between 2015 and 2022, 1,275,679,755 coins in all. 2018 is the scarcest date, with 24,755 struck.

Common questions

History and design

This is the 5p of the last eight years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. Nothing about the coin itself was new in 2015: the reverse dated from 2008 and the nickel-plated steel from the start of the decade. The change was the portrait, unveiled by the Royal Mint on 2 March 2015, with coins bearing it going into production the same day.

That makes 2015 a year with two 5p coins. The Royal Mint's figures give 163,000,000 with the fourth portrait and 536,600,000 with the fifth, the largest figure of this type.

Output then fell year by year: 305,740,000 for 2016, 220,515,000 for 2017, none for circulation in 2018, 92,800,000 for 2019, 49,200,000 for 2020 and 28,000,000 for 2021, before a small rise to 42,800,000 for 2022. The seven circulating dates total 1,275,655,000. From 2023 the 5p carries King Charles III and an oak leaf.

Matthew Dent's reverse shows the centre of the Shield of the Royal Arms, the point where the quarters meet. The proclamation describes it as a section of the Royal Arms showing elements of all four quarterings, accompanied by the words FIVE PENCE. It is one piece of a larger picture: his 1p to 50p designs form the whole shield when laid out together, an idea chosen from a competition that drew more than 4,000 designs.

The obverse has Jody Clark's portrait of the Queen wearing the Royal Diamond Diadem. Clark was the first Royal Mint engraver in over 100 years to be chosen for a definitive royal portrait. The edge is milled.

Collecting notes

No recognised varieties or mint errors are documented for this coin.

The low figures are at the end of the run. In the Royal Mint's figures the 28,000,000 of 2021 is the lowest for any small 5p issued under the Queen, and 2022 and 2020 are the next two lowest. Only the large 5p of 1977, at 24,308,000, has a lower figure in her reign. These are still tens of millions of coins, so none is hard to find.

Coins dated 2018 had no circulating issue, and collector references record that the date was made for annual sets only. For 2015, turn the coin over to see which portrait it has: the older one belongs to the fourth portrait steel 5p.

Every coin of this type is nickel-plated steel and will stick to a magnet. The 5p remains legal tender for amounts up to £5 and these dates are common in change, alongside its successor, the oak leaf 5p of Charles III.