50 Pence - Elizabeth II Modern Pentathlon Gold Proof (2011)

About the 2011 50 Pence - Elizabeth II Modern Pentathlon – Gold Proof

The 2011 50 Pence - Elizabeth II Modern Pentathlon – 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: A stylised image of figures carrying out the five disciplines of the modern pentathlon: fencing, running, pistol shooting, horse riding and swimming, London 2012 logo above, denomination below.

Common questions

History and design

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

The Modern Pentathlon 50p is one of 29 designs issued for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, one for each sport, chosen through a design competition open to the general public. The royal proclamation setting out the designs came into force on 12 May 2010, and the coin is dated 2011.

The Royal Mint's figures give a circulating mintage of 1,689,500. Nine of the 29 designs have lower figures and nineteen have higher ones, making it the tenth scarcest of the series. It sits between Handball (1,676,500) and Rowing (1,717,300). The scarcest design, Football, stands at 1,125,500 and the most common, Archery, at 3,345,500.

The reverse is by Daniel Brittain, and the Royal Mint says it was selected from more than 30,000 public submissions. Brittain had just finished university. He told the Royal Mint Museum that his father came home from work having heard about the competition on the radio, and that he began work on his designs that same afternoon.

He chose the sport, he said, "because of the challenge of getting five sports onto one coin". The five are fencing, swimming, running, horse riding and shooting. Rather than lay out five separate pictures, Brittain wanted "one movement to create all five sports". The starting point was a photograph of a swimmer throwing up a large splash, from which he imagined a horse jumping out of the water, and he then built the other three disciplines around that pairing.

The proclamation describes the result as "a montage of the five sports which form the modern pentathlon", with the London 2012 logo above and 50 PENCE below. 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.