50 Pence - Elizabeth II 4th portrait Wheelchair Rugby (2011)

About the 2011 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Wheelchair Rugby

The 2011 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Wheelchair Rugby 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: Wheelchair rugby player in chair with ball, London 2012 logo above, denomination below.

1,765,500 were struck.

Common questions

History and design

The Wheelchair Rugby 50p marks one of the Paralympic sports in the series of 29 coins struck for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Each sport has its own reverse, chosen through a competition open to the public, and every coin is dated 2011. The proclamation describing this design came into force on 12 May 2010.

The Royal Mint's figures give a circulating mintage of 1,765,500. Fifteen of the 29 designs are lower and 13 are higher, which puts it almost exactly in the middle. It falls between Sailing (1,749,500) and Hockey (1,773,500).

The coin carries the London 2012 Paralympic logo in place of the Olympic one. The May 2010 proclamation describes five designs that way: Archery, Boccia, Goalball, Table Tennis and Wheelchair Rugby. Of those, Goalball is the scarcest at 1,615,500.

The reverse is by Natasha Ratcliffe, who had two designs chosen for the series, this one and Handball. The proclamation describes it simply as "a wheelchair rugby player in action", with the Paralympic logo above and 50 PENCE below.

Ratcliffe told the Royal Mint Museum that she entered because she loves coins and medals. She had no background in the sport and worked from photographs, which showed "wheelchairs crashing into one another", dented wheel covers and players with their hands strapped up. She liked how "organic and raw" it looked.

Her answer was a close-up. The sport, she said, is about "the muscle and the hands and the determination in the face", so she decided to home in on those and "push everything else out of the coin". The Royal Mint notes the impact marks on the wheel guards. 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, staining and flattened detail on a circulated example are wear, not errors.

The face and hands are the centre of the design, so check that they are still clear. The dents on the wheel guard are part of the design and are not damage.

The proclamation also provided for the design to be struck in gold. Any precious-metal versions share the design but are separate from the 1,765,500 struck for circulation.

The coin was struck for general circulation and can still turn up in change. Ratcliffe's other coin is the Handball 50p, and the scarcest design with the Paralympic logo is the Goalball 50p.