5 Pounds - Elizabeth II 4th portrait Millennium, Dome privy mark (2000)

About the 2000 5 Pounds - Elizabeth II – Millennium, Dome privy mark

The 2000 5 Pounds - Elizabeth II – Millennium, Dome privy mark is a collector 5 pounds coin, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 28.28g and measures 38.61mm across. Reverse design: A representation of the British Isles with a pair of clock hands, pivoted on Greenwich and set at twelve o'clock, commemorative dates either side, denomination below.

Common questions

History and design

For the millennium year the Royal Mint set up a coining press inside the Millennium Dome at Greenwich. Its 1999-2000 annual report says the press was installed "to produce a specially mintmarked version of the millennium crown for Dome visitors". The Mint called it the only commemorative product manufactured at the Dome, and said sales of the special coin pack had grown until it ranked among the Dome's best-selling items.

Striking continued during 2000. The 2000-01 report says that, apart from the official Dome programme, the coin was the best-selling product there, and that when the Dome closed the press went back to the Mint, where it was put to work in the Proof Coin Unit. The Royal Mint publishes no separate figure for the Dome coin. Its striking total for 2000, 3,147,092 crowns, covers every crown of that year.

The coin is the Millennium crown with one addition: a small globe mintmark on the reverse, which the Mint says "signifies that the coin was actually struck by the press" at the Dome. The Science Museum Group, which holds an example, says the mark was inspired by the globes above the west gate of the Old Naval College at Greenwich.

Otherwise the design is unchanged. Jeffrey Matthews's reverse shows a clock dial with the hands at 12 o'clock over a map of the British Isles, the dates 1999 and 2000, ANNO DOMINI and FIVE POUNDS. The obverse carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen, and the edge reads WHAT'S PAST IS PROLOGUE.

Collecting notes

The first check is the mark itself. Check Your Change places the globe to the right, above ANNO DOMINI, and a coin without it is the ordinary Millennium crown. Because the Dome coin was sold in a pack, one still in its original packaging is easier to accept as the genuine article than a loose coin.

The Royal Mint describes crowns as issued for special occasions rather than general circulation, and this one was sold only to visitors, so it was never meant for change. For the standard coin issued through banks and post offices in 1999 and 2000 see the Millennium crown.