50 Pence - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait D-Day Anniversary (1994)

About the 1994 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – D-Day Anniversary

The 1994 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – D-Day Anniversary is a circulating 50 pence coin in the WWII & D-Day Commemoratives series, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 13.5g and measures 30mm across. Reverse design: Design representing the Allied invasion force of landing craft and aircraft heading for Normandy, filling the sea and sky. Denomination lower right with.

6,705,520 were struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1998), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The D-Day 50p was struck in 1994 for the 50th anniversary of the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944, which the Royal Mint describes as the largest amphibious military assault in history. It was only the third commemorative 50p, after the 1973 EEC coin and the Single Market coin dated 1992 to 1993.

It was issued for general circulation. The Royal Mint's figures give 6,705,520 coins, a modest number beside the 89,775,000 of the EEC coin, though far more than the 109,000 of the Single Market issue.

It also closed a chapter. The Royal Mint notes that this was the last commemorative 50p in the larger 30mm size before the coin was reduced in 1997.

The sculptor John Mills designed the reverse. The Royal Mint describes it as a design representing the Allied invasion force heading for Normandy, filling the sea and sky, together with the value 50 PENCE. The Mint's shop description puts it more simply, as an armada of ships and aeroplanes heading towards Normandy.

The official description mentions no commemorative wording on the reverse, only the value. The picture is left to carry the subject.

One account of the design says Mills drew on his boyhood recollections of the day, when he looked up to see the sky filled with distinctively marked planes.

The obverse has the portrait of the Queen by Raphael Maklouf, used on 50p coins from 1985 to 1997.

Collecting notes

This is a large 50p: 30mm 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. The D-Day coin therefore had only a few years in use and cannot be spent or found in change now.

Many surviving coins came out of circulation, so check the high points. The hulls of the nearest ships and the wings of the aircraft flatten first, and the broad open fields pick up scratches easily.

As well as the circulating coin, the Royal Mint sold a Brilliant Uncirculated version in a sealed presentation pack, with a finer finish than coins made for change. Silver proof and silver piedfort versions of the same design were struck for collectors. The piedfort is the same diameter but thicker and heavier. The 1992 to 1993 Single Market 50p is the other large-size commemorative of the 1990s.