50 Pence - Elizabeth II 2nd portrait Entry into EEC (1973)

About the 1973 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Entry into EEC

The 1973 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Entry into EEC is a circulating 50 pence coin, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 13.5g and measures 30mm across. Reverse design: Denomination below date surrounded by circle of nine hands, symbolising the nine members of the EEC, clasping one another in a mutual gesture of trust, assistance and friendship.

89,775,000 were struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1998), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community in 1973, and the Royal Mint marked the accession with a new reverse for the 50p. It was the first commemorative 50p, issued only four years after the denomination itself appeared.

It was struck as a normal circulating coin. The Royal Mint's figures give 89,775,000, the only 50p issued for circulation dated 1973. That is the second highest figure for any year of the large 50p, behind the 188,400,000 of 1969 and just ahead of the 89,086,000 Britannia coins of 1980.

The sculptor David Wynne designed the reverse. The Royal Mint describes it as the inscription 50 PENCE and the date of the year, surrounded by nine hands, symbolising the nine members of the Community, clasping one another in a mutual gesture of trust, assistance and friendship.

The Royal Mint Museum holds Wynne's early artwork, which shows a ring of ten hands. Norway had been expected to join, and when it withdrew the number of members fell from ten to nine, so Wynne amended the design.

He modelled the hands on people close by: his own, those of his wife and one of his sons, a craftsman from his studio and a girl who helped look after his children. One of her hands remains in the finished design and looks more delicate than the rest. The Mint has often been asked whether it stands for a particular country, and the Museum is clear that it does not.

The obverse carries Arnold Machin's portrait of the Queen, as on the Britannia 50p of the time. The date appears on the reverse.

Collecting notes

This is a large-size 50p, 30mm across and 13.5g. The Royal Mint states that the larger coin was demonetised in 1998, after the smaller 50p was introduced on 1 September 1997, so the EEC coin cannot be spent and no longer appears in change.

With close to 90 million struck, circulated examples are common. Condition is what separates one from another: look at the knuckles and fingertips, the highest points of the design, and at the Queen's cheek and hair on the other side, where wear and bag marks show first.

Proof versions were also made for collectors in 1973 and have mirrored fields. The design was the only departure from the Britannia 50 new pence during the 1970s, and the next commemorative 50p did not follow until the 1992 to 1993 Single Market coin.