The
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
two pound (£2)
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
is a denomination of
sterling coinage. Its obverse has featured the profile of
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
since the coin’s introduction. Three different portraits of the Queen have been used, with the current design by
Jody Clark
Jody Clark (born 1 March 1981) is a British engraver formerly employed by the Royal Mint. He designed the fifth and final portrait of Queen Elizabeth II to feature on coins of the pound sterling, and that portrait was the fifth and final to f ...
being introduced in 2015. The reverse design features
Britannia
Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...
.
The coin was introduced on 15 June 1998 (coins minted 1997) after a review of the United Kingdom's coinage decided that a general-circulation £2 coin was needed.
[Two Pound Coin Designs and Specifications](_blank)
Royal Mint The new
bi-metallic coin
Bi-metallic coins are coins consisting of two ('' bi-'') metals or alloys, generally arranged with an outer ring around a contrasting center. Common circulating examples include the €1, €2, United Kingdom £1 and £2, Canadian $2, Sou ...
design replaced a series of commemorative, uni-metallic coins which were issued between 1986 and 1996 to celebrate special occasions. Although legal tender, those earlier coins had never been common in everyday circulation.
As of March 2014 there were an estimated 417 million £2 coins in circulation with an estimated face value of £834 million.
Beyond the usual commemorative versions, no standard two pound coins have been minted for general circulation since 2016, although examples have been issued in uncirculated sets at a premium. This was because the concurrent introduction of the new version of the
one pound coin had put enough £2 (and
20 pence) coins back into circulation, as people emptied coin jars primarily for the older one pound coin that was due to be withdrawn.
£2 coins are
legal tender
Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in pa ...
to any amount when offered in repayment of a debt; however, the coin's legal tender status is not normally relevant for everyday transactions.
Design
The original
reverse
Reverse or reversing may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Reverse'' (Eldritch album), 2001
* ''Reverse'' (2009 film), a Polish comedy-drama film
* ''Reverse'' (2019 film), an Iranian crime-drama film
* ''Reverse'' (Morandi album), 2005
* ''Reverse'' ...
of the coin, designed by
Bruce Rushin
Bruce Rushin is an art teacher and coin designer from Brundall in Norfolk, United Kingdom.
In 1997, Rushin entered (and won) a competition by submitting a design for the British Two Pound coin. Rushin had no previous experience in coin design. Th ...
, is an abstract design symbolising the history of technological achievement, accompanied by the words
TWO POUNDS above, and the year of minting below.
This was the first
bi-metallic coin
Bi-metallic coins are coins consisting of two ('' bi-'') metals or alloys, generally arranged with an outer ring around a contrasting center. Common circulating examples include the €1, €2, United Kingdom £1 and £2, Canadian $2, Sou ...
to be produced for circulation in Britain since the
tin farthing
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, ...
with a copper plug produced in 1692, and is the highest denomination coin in common circulation in the UK. The coin consists of an outer yellow metal nickel-brass ring made from 76%
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
, 20%
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
, and 4%
nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...
, and an inner steel-coloured cupro-nickel disc made from 75% copper, 25% nickel. The coin weighs and is in diameter.
The design itself was first tried out in 1994 when the
Royal Mint
The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's oldest company and the official maker of British coins.
Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by His Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclus ...
produced a short run of demonstration pieces to the new bi-metal standard. These pieces were not for circulation and were simply intended to test the manufacturing process. The coin was technically similar to the version which eventually entered circulation with the Maklouf effigy of
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
on the obverse and the image of a sailing ship similar to that previously used on the reverse of the
pre-decimal halfpenny piece. The inscription on the reverse read
ROYAL MINT TRIAL 1994 with an edge inscription based on the one pound coin which read
DECUS ET TUTAMEN ANNO REGNI XLVI, meaning "An ornament and a safeguard –
n the46th year of
erreign". The 1994 pieces were never legal tender but were eventually released for sale as part of a presentation set in 1998. At the same time in 1994 the Royal Mint produced a mono-metallic trial two-pound coin, with the same ship reverse and inscription, but otherwise similar to the earlier commemorative coins. These were never issued in presentation sets, and so are much scarcer than the bi-metallic version.
Because of technical difficulties, the 1997-dated coins, which bear the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by
Raphael Maklouf
Raphael David Maklouf (born 10 December 1937) is a British sculpture, sculptor, best known for designing an effigy of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II used on the coins of many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations ...
, were not released to circulation until June 1998 (the same time as the 1998-dated coins). 1998 and later dated coins bear the effigy of the Queen by
Ian Rank-Broadley
Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS (born 1952) is a British sculptor who has produced many acclaimed works, among which are several designs for British coinage and the memorial statue of Princess Diana at Kensington Palace in London unveiled on her 60th ...
. The Maklouf-effigy coins bear the inscription
ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA F D on the obverse; the Rank-Broadley coins bear the inscription
ELIZABETH II DEI GRA REG FID DEF.
The reverse of the regular-issue coin, designed by Bruce Rushin, bears a concentric design symbolically representing technological development from the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
, through the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
and the Electronic Age to the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
, with the inscription
TWO POUNDS above the design and the date below. An oddity of the design is that it depicts nineteen interlocking gears. Because there is an odd number of them, the mechanism could not actually turn. The coin has the edge
inscription
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, a quote taken from a letter by
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
to
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that ...
, in which he describes how his work was built on the knowledge of those that had gone before him. "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Newton was Warden and later Master of the Royal Mint.
In February 2015, the Royal Mint announced a new design featuring
Britannia
Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...
by Antony Dufort replacing the previous design. The new coins feature the edge inscription
QUATUOR MARIA VINDICO, meaning "I claim the four seas", an inscription previously featured on coins bearing the image of Britannia.
The comparative rarity of the Maklouf-effigy coins has led to an
urban myth
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
that they are much more valuable than the other coins, but this is not true – there were over 13 million 1997-dated £2 coins issued. Another urban myth about the coin is that putting it in the freezer overnight causes the cupro-nickel centre to pop out, a claim which had been true of some early mintings of the similarly bimetallic
Canadian 2 dollar coin
The toonie (also spelled twonie or twoonie), formally the Canadian two-dollar coin (, nicknamed or ), was introduced on February 19, 1996, by Minister of Public Works Diane Marleau. , it possesses the highest monetary value of any circulating ...
.
Variants
In addition to the standard designs there have been several variant reverse designs used on the £2 coin to commemorate important events. These are summarised in the table below.
"Inverted effigy" coins
In 2015, a small number of £2 Coins entered circulation that featured the Queen’s head rotated clockwise by approximately 150 degrees. The Royal Mint stated that the misalignment of the Queen’s effigy was "almost certainly the result of one of the dies working loose and rotating during the striking process". Change Checker, a coin dealing website, suggest that the Inverted Effigy may have affected as few as around just 3,250 coins.
Status as legal tender
Current £2 coins are
legal tender
Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in pa ...
to any amount.
However, "legal tender" has a very specific and narrow meaning which relates only to the repayment of debt to a creditor, not to everyday shopping or other transactions.
Specifically, coins of particular denominations are said to be "legal tender" when a creditor must by law accept them in redemption of a debt.
The term does not mean - as is often thought - that a shopkeeper has to accept a particular type of currency in payment.
A shopkeeper is under no obligation to accept any specific type of payment, whether legal tender or not; conversely they have the discretion to accept any payment type they wish.
Mintages
See also
*
Coins of the pound sterling
The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories is denominated in pennies and pounds sterling ( symbol "£", commercial GBP), and ranges in value from one penny sterling t ...
*
Double sovereign
*
Banknotes of the pound sterling
Sterling banknotes are the banknotes in circulation in the United Kingdom and its related territories, denominated in pound sterling, pounds sterling (symbol: Pound sign, £; ISO 4217 currency code: GBP; traditional abbreviation: Stg.).
Sterli ...
Notes
References
External links
Royal Mint – £2 coinThe Pemember 'error' on the £2 Gunpowder Plot commemorativeTwo Pounds, Coin Type from United Kingdom - Online Coin Club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Two Pounds (British Decimal Coin)
Coins of the United Kingdom
Bi-metallic coins
Two-base-unit coins