50 Pence - Elizabeth II 4th portrait Royal Shield (2008–2015)

One row for each year the 50 Pence - Elizabeth II 4th portrait – Royal Shield was struck. Prices are medians of verified sold listings matched to that year from the listing: circulated is worn condition up to Extremely Fine, uncirculated is About Uncirculated or better. A count in brackets means fewer than three sales behind the figure; a grey figure marked "type" is the median across every year, shown where that year has no sale of its own yet; years with no sales yet fill in as sales are recorded. Most types have been searched year by year only since October 2026, so later years are still filling in. Use the grade table below for a price by condition across all years.

About the 2008 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Royal Shield

The 2008 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Royal Shield is a circulating 50 pence coin issued from 2008 to 2015 in the Royal Shield series, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 8g and measures 27.3mm across. Reverse design: Lower section of the Royal Shield, denomination to lower segment.

Mintage figures are recorded for 8 years between 2008 and 2015, 134,683,598 coins in all. 2011 is the scarcest date, with 56,007 struck.

Common questions

History and design

The Royal Shield 50p replaced Christopher Ironside's Britannia, which had been on the coin since 1969. It came out of a public competition for new reverses for the circulating coins, launched in August 2005. The Royal Mint says it received more than 4,000 designs from 526 people, the largest response to a competition of its kind in Britain.

The winner was Matthew Dent, a young graphic designer who had entered under the pseudonym Designer Z. The royal proclamation for the new series came into force on 13 February 2008, and the coins entered circulation that year.

The Royal Mint's figures give 22,747,000 Royal Shield 50p coins dated 2008, alongside a final 3,500,000 Britannia coins of the same date. No Royal Shield 50p was struck for circulation dated 2009, 2010 or 2011. Production resumed with 32,300,030 dated 2012, then 10,301,000 for 2013, 49,001,000 for 2014 and 20,101,000 for 2015 with this portrait: 134,450,030 in all.

Dent split the Shield of the Royal Arms across six coins, from the 1p to the 50p, so that together they form the whole shield. The 50p is the lowest piece, the point of the shield. The proclamation describes it as a section of the Royal Arms showing elements of the third and fourth quarterings, accompanied by the words FIFTY PENCE.

Dent said that piecing the elements together into one design "had a satisfying symbolism", that of unity. The reverse sits with a point of the heptagon downwards, and in 2008 the obverse was turned to match.

The obverse has the portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley, used on the 50p until 2015. The edge is plain.

Collecting notes

All five circulating dates remain legal tender and can be found in change. By mintage, 2013 is the lowest and 2014 the highest. The Royal Mint's figures show no circulation production dated 2009, 2010 or 2011, so a coin with one of those dates should not be expected in change.

In 2015 the portrait changed to Jody Clark's, and the Royal Mint counts a further 39,300,000 coins of that date with the new head. Those belong to the later Royal Shield 50p, so check the portrait on any 2015 coin. The design it replaced is the Britannia 50p.

For 2008 the Royal Mint sold the new designs as Royal Shield of Arms sets. Its sales figures show the base metal Brilliant Uncirculated set (limit 100,000), base proof set (20,000), silver proof set (10,000) and silver piedfort set (3,000) all sold out, with 886 gold sets and 184 platinum sets sold.

No recognised varieties or mint errors are documented for this coin.