UK Coin Mintage Figures
Royal Mint mintage figures for 1,946 UK coin issues across 20 denominations, sortable by year, design and mintage. Use these tables to spot key dates, low-mintage rarities and the difference between a £5 face-value coin and a £500 collectable.
The lowest-mintage UK decimal circulating coins
Every figure below is human-verified against Royal Mint publications and re-asserted nightly by our data-integrity checks, genuine circulation strikes only, no proofs, BU packs or bullion. Most are worth checking your change for; the large-format 1992–93 EU 50p was withdrawn in 1998 and only turns up in old jars.
Mintage figures: common questions
Where do these mintage figures come from?
The figures are published by the Royal Mint, which reports how many coins of each design were struck for circulation. MyCoinage catalogues them per issue, 1,946 UK issues carry a mintage figure, and multi-year types additionally show per-year breakdowns on their coin pages.
What is the lowest-mintage UK coin in circulation?
Of coins still spendable today, the 2023 Atlantic Salmon 50p (mintage 200,000), narrowly ahead of the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p (210,000). Counting withdrawn coins, the dual-dated 1992–93 EU Presidency 50p is lower still at 109,000, but it was demonetised with the rest of the large 50ps in 1998. The table above lists the verified lowest-mintage decimal circulating coins.
Do mintage figures include proofs and BU sets?
No. The circulating mintage counts only coins struck for general circulation. Proof, Brilliant Uncirculated, piedfort and bullion versions are separate collector strikes with their own (usually much smaller) mintages, and are listed as separate issues in the tables.
Does a low mintage mean a coin is valuable?
Not by itself. Mintage sets the supply side; value also needs demand. A 210,000-mintage coin with a famous design (the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p) trades far above a scarcer but obscure issue. As a rule of thumb, under 250,000 almost always commands a premium, under 1 million usually does, and above 10 million a coin is face value unless in exceptional grade.
How to read mintage figures
Mintage is the total number of coins struck for a given issue. For UK circulation coins, mintage is set by HM Treasury and the Royal Mint based on demand from banks and the Post Office. For commemoratives, mintage is set by collector demand and Royal Mint product strategy. Lower mintage does not always equal higher value, design popularity, condition and demand all factor in.
- Under 250,000: genuinely rare, almost always commands premium (e.g. 2009 Kew Gardens 50p, 2023 Atlantic Salmon 50p)
- 250,000 - 1,000,000: scarce, usually trades 5-30× face value in good condition
- 1m - 5m: uncommon, premium depends on design popularity
- 5m - 10m: common but with collector interest
- 10m+: mass-circulated, face value unless in high grade