Peter Rabbit 50p Series Guide: All 13 Beatrix Potter Coins, Mintages & Values
Between 2016 and 2018 the Royal Mint released 13 Beatrix Potter-themed 50p coins, putting Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Squirrel Nutkin and friends into UK circulation for the 150th anniversary of Potter’s birth. The series is now closed, mintages are public and realised auction prices are stable enough to value with confidence. This guide lists every coin, every mintage, every collector variant and what each is worth today.
The Beatrix Potter 50p series at a glance
The Beatrix Potter 50p series was the first time a UK circulating coin programme had been licensed entirely from a single literary estate. Frederick Warne & Co (the original publisher of Potter’s books, owned by Penguin Random House) licensed the character rights to the Royal Mint for a three-year run timed to the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth on 28 July 1866.
The first coin, a portrait of Potter herself, entered circulation in early 2016. It was joined by four character coins (Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Squirrel Nutkin, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle), and the programme then ran with four character coins per year in 2017 and 2018. Total: 13 designs, all on the standard 8.00 g cupronickel heptagonal 50p planchet.
Each circulating coin had collector siblings: a brilliant-uncirculated presentation card edition, a sterling silver proof, a sterling silver Piedfort (double-thickness), most years a coloured silver Piedfort variant, and a 22-carat or .999 gold proof. Mintages descend in roughly that order, from millions of cupronickel coins to a few hundred gold proofs.
Every Beatrix Potter 50p: complete list with mintages
| Year | Design | Designer | Mintage | Typical BU value | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Beatrix Potter portrait | Emma Noble | 6,900,000 | £8 – £15 | The only coin showing Potter herself; series opener |
| 2016 | Peter Rabbit | Emma Noble | 9,602,000 | £6 – £12 | First Peter Rabbit coin; highest 2016 mintage |
| 2016 | Squirrel Nutkin | Emma Noble | 5,002,000 | £8 – £15 | Mid-rarity 2016 issue |
| 2016 | Mrs Tiggy-Winkle | Emma Noble | 8,800,000 | £6 – £12 | The hedgehog washerwoman; most-circulated character |
| 2016 | Jemima Puddle-Duck | Emma Noble | 2,100,000 | £10 – £18 | Lowest 2016 mintage; widely held to be the series key |
| 2017 | Peter Rabbit | Emma Noble | 19,900,000 | £3 – £6 | Different pose to 2016 Peter Rabbit; very common |
| 2017 | Tom Kitten | Emma Noble | 9,500,000 | £4 – £8 | One of two 2017 mid-mintage issues |
| 2017 | Jeremy Fisher | Emma Noble | 9,900,000 | £4 – £8 | The frog with a fishing rod |
| 2017 | Benjamin Bunny | Emma Noble | 25,000,000 | £2 – £5 | Highest mintage of the entire series |
| 2018 | Peter Rabbit | Emma Noble | 1,400,000 | £12 – £20 | Joint lowest mintage; carrot-patch design |
| 2018 | Flopsy Bunny | Andrew Davidson | 1,400,000 | £10 – £18 | Joint lowest mintage |
| 2018 | Mrs Tittlemouse | Andrew Davidson | 1,700,000 | £8 – £15 | Second-lowest 2018 mintage |
| 2018 | Tailor of Gloucester | Andrew Davidson | 3,900,000 | £5 – £10 | Highest of the 2018 quartet |
Mintage figures from Royal Mint published mintage figures. BU values reflect realised eBay UK sold listings averaged over the past 12 months.
Why the 2018 issues are mathematically the rarest
The Royal Mint cut circulating mintages dramatically for the third year of the programme. The 2018 Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny were each capped at 1,400,000 coins; that is just 7% of the 2017 Peter Rabbit run and barely 5% of the 2017 Benjamin Bunny’s 25 million. On pure mintage they are the scarcest characters in the series.
Despite this, secondary-market pricing does not perfectly track mintage. The 2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck still attracts a small premium over the 2018 Peter Rabbit because it had nearly two years to establish itself as the “key” coin before the 2018 figures emerged, and some collectors who started the series in 2016 specifically prize the 2016 set. Expect this to converge: as the series matures and casual buyers chase the lowest-mintage coins, the 2018 Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny should move ahead of Jemima on price within a few years.
Brilliant uncirculated 2018 Peter Rabbit 50ps in sealed Royal Mint cards realise £15–£20 on eBay UK sold listings. Raw circulated examples land at £8–£12. Counterfeits remain rare because the cupronickel value is too low to support forgery economics; the small-scale fakes that do exist are generally novelty plastic replicas rather than struck metal.
Silver and silver Piedfort variants
Each circulating Beatrix Potter 50p was matched by collector-only versions sold directly by the Royal Mint. Mintages here are an order of magnitude smaller and pricing is correspondingly higher.
| Coin | Variant | Mintage | Original RM retail | Current secondary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 Beatrix Potter portrait | Silver proof | 15,000 | £55 | £60 – £110 |
| 2016 Peter Rabbit | Silver Piedfort (coloured) | 5,500 | £105 | £120 – £180 |
| 2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck | Silver Piedfort (coloured) | 2,500 | £105 | £200 – £280 |
| 2016 Squirrel Nutkin | Silver Piedfort (coloured) | 5,000 | £105 | £130 – £180 |
| 2016 Mrs Tiggy-Winkle | Silver Piedfort (coloured) | 7,500 | £105 | £100 – £150 |
| 2017 Peter Rabbit | Silver Piedfort (coloured) | 3,500 | £112 | £130 – £200 |
| 2017 Benjamin Bunny | Silver Piedfort (coloured) | 3,500 | £112 | £110 – £170 |
| 2018 Peter Rabbit | Silver Piedfort (coloured) | 3,500 | £115 | £150 – £220 |
| 2018 Flopsy Bunny | Silver Piedfort (coloured) | 3,500 | £115 | £130 – £190 |
| Any year | Gold proof (.9167) | 450–650 | £1,300–£1,650 | £1,400 – £2,500 |
The 2016 coloured Jemima Puddle-Duck silver Piedfort, with its 2,500 mintage, is the most-sought collector variant in the series and consistently leads silver-proof realisations at Baldwin’s and Spink auctions. Expect that pattern to continue: low mintage plus the “portrait of a single character” design plus the duck’s wide popular recognition outside the coin community.
The designers behind the series
The Beatrix Potter coins were not invented at the Royal Mint — the source illustrations are Beatrix Potter’s own watercolours, drawn between 1893 and the early 1930s. The coin designers’ job was to translate those originals into low-relief engravings that would strike cleanly on cupronickel and remain legible after years of circulation.
- Emma Noble — designed the 2016 Beatrix Potter portrait (the only non-character coin in the series) plus the principal character coins for 2016 and 2017. A long-serving Royal Mint designer with a portraiture background, she also produced the 2017 Sir Isaac Newton 50p.
- Andrew Davidson — the wood engraver responsible for several of the 2018 designs (Flopsy Bunny, Mrs Tittlemouse and Tailor of Gloucester). Davidson is best known outside numismatics for his Folio Society illustrations and for the cover art for the Faber edition of Ted Hughes’s Tales from Ovid. His linework gives the 2018 issues a slightly more textured, illustrative feel than the cleaner 2016–17 coins.
- Royal Mint engraving team — lifted Beatrix Potter’s flat watercolours into the relief depth required for striking. The technical challenge is significant: Potter’s originals rely on subtle wash and fine outline, both of which had to be re-imagined as raised metal under 1.78 mm of strike.
All 13 reverses sit on the standard heptagonal 50p planchet with the obverse Jody Clark portrait of Queen Elizabeth II (the fifth definitive UK portrait, introduced in March 2015 and used on these coins).
Identifying a genuine Beatrix Potter 50p
Cupronickel forgeries of UK 50ps are uncommon because the metal value is far below the cost of striking; what does exist is mostly novelty replicas (resin or zinc) and altered coins where someone has hand-painted a non-coloured circulating issue to mimic a coloured silver. Five checks in order:
- Weight. 8.00 g ± 0.05 g on a 0.01 g jewellery scale. Replicas are typically 6.5–7.5 g (zinc or resin) or noticeably heavier (lead-cored).
- Diameter. 27.30 mm flat-to-flat across the seven sides. The shape is a Reuleaux heptagon (constant-width curve, not straight-edged).
- Edge. Plain (no reeding) on every UK 50p. A reeded edge is a hard-fail counterfeit indicator.
- Relief. The character should be sharp with crisp outlines. Cast or pressed-resin fakes show soft details; hand-painted cupronickel coins show paint pooling in low-relief areas.
- Colour layer (silver proofs only). Genuine coloured Royal Mint issues have the colour layer applied under a clear lacquer that catches light evenly. Hand-painted coins show brushstrokes and uneven tone.
For full grading methodology and the British Numismatic Trade Association scale, see our how to grade a coin guide. Our coin collecting glossary has the full Piedfort, BU and proof definitions.
Completing the set
There are three sensible routes to a complete Beatrix Potter 50p collection:
- From change. All 13 designs still surface in everyday change. The 2017 Benjamin Bunny is by far the easiest find; the 2018 quartet and the 2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck are the genuine grind. Expect 18–24 months of careful change-checking to complete the set this way, with two or three gaps that need filling from purchases.
- BU presentation cards. The Royal Mint released each year’s coins in individual sealed presentation cards at £10 retail. Many are still available on the secondary market at £8–£20 per coin. A complete BU set in original cards is a clean £150–£250 build.
- Complete 13-coin BU album. The Royal Mint did not issue an official 13-coin Beatrix Potter album, but third-party producers (Change Checker, Westminster Collection) sold housing albums that hold the full series. Complete albums regularly trade at £180–£280 on eBay UK.
Where the series sits in modern UK 50p history
The Beatrix Potter 50p programme is one of three landmark licensed-character circulation series the Royal Mint has run since 2010, alongside the Paddington 50p series (2018–2023) and the Harry Potter 50p series (2022 onwards). It also sits in the broader context of the London 2012 Olympic 50p set, which set the precedent for multi-year multi-design 50p programmes.
For the full picture of 50p commemoratives and where Beatrix Potter ranks for value and scarcity, see our 50p coin values UK guide. For known minting errors across the entire 50p denomination (mules, off-centre strikes, weak strikes), see our UK coin errors list.
Featured Beatrix Potter 50ps on MyCoinage
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Buy a Beatrix Potter 50p
The links below open eBay UK searches; if you buy through them, MyCoinage earns a small commission at no cost to you. We only link to coins we’d genuinely buy ourselves.
The lowest-mintage 2018 issues (Peter Rabbit, Flopsy Bunny, Mrs Tittlemouse, Tailor of Gloucester) and the 2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck are the keepers. BU sealed Royal Mint cards on eBay typically sit at £8–£20 per design; complete 13-coin albums at £150–£250.
Jemima Puddle-Duck 50p ↗ 2018 Peter Rabbit 50p ↗ Flopsy Bunny 50p ↗ Mrs Tittlemouse 50p ↗ Complete 13-coin album ↗ Silver Piedfort prices ↗ Squirrel Nutkin 50p ↗ Tailor of Gloucester ↗
Frequently asked questions
How many Beatrix Potter 50p coins are there?
Which Beatrix Potter 50p is the rarest in circulation?
How much is a 2016 Peter Rabbit 50p worth?
Are coloured Beatrix Potter 50ps real circulating coins?
Who designed the Beatrix Potter 50p coins?
Why did the series end after 2018?
Are there 2019 or 2020 Peter Rabbit 50ps?
Are the silver proofs a good investment?
How do I tell a real Beatrix Potter 50p from a fake?
What is a complete Beatrix Potter 50p album worth?
Will the Royal Mint reissue Beatrix Potter coins?
Are Beatrix Potter 50ps still found in change?
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Further reading
- Royal Mint mintage figures — the official source for circulating mintage data.
- Royal Mint shop — current commemorative and silver-proof releases.
- Baldwin’s of St James’s — auction realisations for Piedfort and gold-proof Beatrix Potter coins.
- Spink — specialist coin auction house with regular UK modern decimal sales.
- 50p coin values UK — the full 50p denomination from 1969 to today.
- Where to sell rare coins UK — commission-by-commission breakdown of UK auction venues.
- Coin collecting glossary — BU, proof, Piedfort and other terms used above.
- How to grade a coin — the UK and Sheldon scales explained.