50 Pence - Elizabeth II Basketball Gold Proof (2011)

About the 2011 50 Pence - Elizabeth II Basketball – Gold Proof

The 2011 50 Pence - Elizabeth II Basketball – Gold Proof is a collector 50 pence coin in the Olympic 50p (2011) series, struck in 91.67% gold. It weighs 15.5g and measures 27.3mm across. Reverse design: Four basketball players against a textured background of a large basketball, London 2012 logo above, denomination below.

Common questions

History and design

This is a collector version of the 50 Pence - Elizabeth II – Basketball. The history below is that coin's; the mintage, varieties and collecting notes on its page do not apply to this strike.

The Basketball 50p is one of the 29 coins, one per sport, issued for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The whole series is dated 2011, and each design was picked through a competition open to the public.

The Royal Mint's figures give a circulating mintage of 1,748,000, which places the coin close to the middle of the series. Thirteen designs have lower figures and fifteen have higher ones. Its neighbours are very close: Table Tennis at 1,737,500 and Sailing at 1,749,500, only 1,500 more.

For scale, the lowest in the series is Football at 1,125,500 and the highest is Archery at 3,345,500.

The reverse was designed by Sarah Payne and selected from more than 30,000 public submissions. Four players are shown in motion, each at a different stage of play. Behind them the whole field of the coin is textured to resemble the surface of a basketball, with the London 2012 logo above and 50 PENCE below.

That background was Payne's way of naming the sport without lettering. She told the Royal Mint Museum: "I used the basketball itself as a texture for the background, showing the basketball without having to use the word basketball." She chose the sport after working through the list on the Royal Mint's website, because with basketball "I could capture the movement".

Payne heard about the competition from her grandmother, who saw it in a local paper and telephoned her. Her grandmother died before the shortlist was announced, and Payne said she was glad to have shown her the design before entrants had to keep them confidential.

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.