50 Pence - Elizabeth II 4th portrait Boccia (2011)

About the 2011 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Boccia

The 2011 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Boccia is a circulating 50 pence coin in the Olympic 50p (2011) series, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 8g and measures 27.3mm across. Reverse design: Boccia player in a wheelchair throwing a ball, London 2012 logo above, denomination below.

2,166,000 were struck.

Common questions

History and design

Boccia is a Paralympic sport, and its 50p is one of the 29 coins issued for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Each sport had one design, chosen through a competition open to the public, and every coin is dated 2011.

The Royal Mint's figures give a circulating mintage of 2,166,000. That is the fifth highest in the series, behind Archery (3,345,500), Athletics (2,224,000), Aquatics (2,179,000) and Canoeing, which is only 500 ahead at 2,166,500.

Five of the 29 designs carry the London 2012 Paralympic logo in place of the Olympic one: Archery, Boccia, Goalball, Table Tennis and Wheelchair Rugby. Boccia has the second highest mintage of the five, after Archery.

The reverse was designed by Justin Chung and selected from more than 30,000 public submissions. It shows a boccia player seated in a wheelchair in the act of throwing a ball, with the London 2012 Paralympic logo above and 50 PENCE below. The Royal Mint draws attention to the care given to the player's posture and expression.

That expression was the starting point. Chung, a university student at the time, told the Royal Mint Museum that he watched films of matches online and studied the players, the court and the audience. What held his attention was the athletes' faces and body language: "we can see how hard they try to win and the spirit is what I really wanted to capture on my coin design."

He said he entered because he liked to challenge himself, and that his friends had promised to shout about it whenever one of the coins turned up.

The obverse carries the fourth portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley, in which she wears the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara. The edge is plain.

Collecting notes

No recognised varieties or mint errors are documented for this coin. Marks, discolouration and flattened detail on a circulated example are wear, not errors.

Since the design turns on the player's face and hands, those are the places to look. Choose an example where the features are still distinct and the wheelchair's lines are unbroken.

The 2010 proclamation also provided for the Olympic designs to be struck in gold, and Change Checker reports that one gold coin of each design was presented to its designer. These are separate from the 2,166,000 struck for circulation.

The coin was issued for general circulation and can still turn up in change. The scarcest of the Paralympic-logo coins is the Goalball 50p, and the most common is the Archery 50p.