50 Pence - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait European Community (1992)

About the 1992 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – European Community

The 1992 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – European Community is a circulating 50 pence coin, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 13.5g and measures 30mm across. Reverse design: A conference table seen from above, around which are arranged twelve chairs for the Council of Ministers. The United Kingdom is prominently represented at the head of the table with the table itself showing twelve stars, symbols of the European Community, place in the geographic positions of the cap.

109,000 were struck. It is no longer legal tender (withdrawn 1998), so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The EC Presidency 50p marks two events at once. The United Kingdom held the presidency of the European Community's Council of Ministers in the second half of 1992, and the Single Market was completed on 1 January 1993. Rather than issue two coins, the Royal Mint struck one design carrying both dates, so every example reads 1992 1993.

The Royal Mint's mintage figures record 109,000 struck for circulation. That is the lowest figure for any circulating 50p in the Mint's published table, about half the 210,000 of the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p and below the 200,000 of the 2023 Atlantic Salmon 50p.

It is also one of the larger 50p coins first introduced in 1969. A smaller 50p replaced them on 1 September 1997 and the Royal Mint states that the larger coin was demonetised in 1998, so this coin is no longer legal tender.

The reverse is by the sculptor Mary Milner Dickens, and the Royal Mint Museum records it as her first coin design. She went on to design the 2000 50p for the 150th anniversary of the Public Libraries Act and the 2003 50p for the centenary of the Women's Social and Political Union.

It shows a conference table seen from above with twelve chairs around it, one for each member state of the time. The chair at the head of the table carries the letters UK, reflecting the British presidency. Twelve stars sit on the table, placed to echo the positions of the member states' capital cities, and a network of fine lines links the stars to each other and to the chairs to suggest trade within the Single Market. The dates 1992 and 1993 are above the table and the value 50 PENCE is below.

The obverse carries the third coinage portrait of Elizabeth II, by Raphael Maklouf, in which the Queen wears the George IV State Diadem. The coin is the seven-sided 30mm size in cupro-nickel with a plain edge.

Collecting notes

Because the coin was demonetised in 1998 it cannot turn up in change, and every example now comes from a collection, a set or a dealer. Size is the quick check: at 30mm it is clearly larger than the current 27.3mm 50p.

On the coin itself, look for both dates above the table, the letters UK on the chair at the head, and a plain edge. Do not confuse it with the 1998 European Union 50p, a separate and later issue for which the Royal Mint records a mintage of 5,043,000.

The same design was also struck as a silver proof, a silver piedfort and a gold proof, each catalogued separately on this site. None of those count towards the 109,000. The usual comparison is with the Kew Gardens 50p, which has the higher mintage of the two.