1989 Bill of Rights £2 Coin
The 1989 Bill of Rights £2 is a circulating £2 with 4.39 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1989
- Circulation mintage
- 4,392,825
- Value band
- Face value
- Designer
- John Lobban
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1989 Bill of Rights £2 worth?
4.39 million were made, so the 1989 Bill of Rights £2 is easy to find. A circulated one is worth face value; collectors pay a little more only for uncirculated coins and coins still in their original Royal Mint pack.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with crisp edge lettering
- Original Royal Mint pack or presentation folder
- A genuine mint error such as a misaligned or wrong edge, confirmed by an expert
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1989 Bill of Rights £2 rare?
- No. 4.39 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1989 Bill of Rights £2 coins were made?
- 4,392,825 were struck for circulation.
- Who designed the 1989 Bill of Rights £2?
- The design is credited to John Lobban.
- What is the 1989 Bill of Rights £2 made of?
- Nickel-brass (single metal). It weighs 15.98 g and measures 28.4 mm.
- Can you still spend the 1989 Bill of Rights £2?
- Technically yes. The Royal Mint says the single-metal £2 coins of 1986 to 1996 are still legal tender, but banks and shops do not have to accept them. Most people keep them, since they almost never appear in change.
Why the 1989 Bill of Rights £2 was made
In early 1689 the English Parliament drew up a statement of rights and limits on royal power and presented it to William of Orange and his wife Mary as they accepted the throne. Passed into law later that year as the Bill of Rights, it followed the flight of James II in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. It declared that the Crown could not suspend laws, raise taxes or keep a standing army in peacetime without the consent of Parliament. It also protected free speech in Parliamentary debates. Much of it still forms part of the constitution.
Three hundred years later the Royal Mint issued two £2 coins for the tercentenary, one marking the English Bill of Rights and one marking Scotland's Claim of Right, the parallel Scottish settlement of the same year. The pair share almost the same design and were struck in the same nickel-brass as the 1986 Games coin. Neither saw much use in shops. They were released as circulating commemoratives, but the £2 denomination still had no regular place in everyday change, so most ended up in collections, gift boxes or kitchen drawers.
How to recognize it
John Lobban's reverse places the interlaced cypher W&M, for King William and Queen Mary, above a horizontal Parliamentary Mace, with a representation of the Royal Crown at the top and the dates 1689 and 1989 beneath. Around the rim runs the inscription TERCENTENARY OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS. That wording is the one thing to read carefully, because the Scottish coin of the same year is almost identical. If the inscription says CLAIM OF RIGHT instead, you have the much scarcer sister coin. The edge is simply milled, with no lettering at all, which is correct for this issue. The obverse shows Raphael Maklouf's portrait of the Queen.
The other side carries Raphael Maklouf's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1985 to 1997.
1989 Bill of Rights £2 by the numbers
Measured by how many were made, the 1989 Bill of Rights £2 ranks 24th lowest of 42 circulating £2 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2016 Shakespeare Comedies £2 (4.36 million); the next more common is the 1995 End of World War II £2 (4.39 million).
For scale, the most common is the 2005 End of World War II (VE Day 60) £2 with 10.2 million, about 2.3 times as many. The scarcest is the 1989 Claim of Right £2 with 381,400, 12 times fewer than this one.
1989 brought 1 other circulating £2 design: the Claim of Right (381,400). The 1989 Bill of Rights £2 was the most plentiful of the year.
What to check on your 1989 Bill of Rights £2
- Read the edge. This design has no edge lettering: the edge should be milled. Lettering on the edge of this design, or a crude, uneven edge, is a sign of a counterfeit.
- This early £2 is a single gold-colored metal throughout and heavier than later two-metal coins.
- Weigh it: a genuine single-metal £2 weighs 15.98 g. Fakes are often a little light and softer in detail.
- Compare the portrait and lettering with a known genuine coin. Blurry letters, a flat portrait or uneven spacing point to a copy.
At 4,392,825 struck for circulation, the Bill of Rights £2 is far more common than its Scottish partner, which had less than a tenth of that figure. In worn condition it usually changes hands at face value, while a bright uncirculated example earns a small premium. Many were kept as souvenirs from the start, so decent ones are not hard to find. Check for scratches across the mace and cypher: these broad, flat areas pick up handling marks quickly. Those marks make the difference between a coin that is merely old and one a collector actually wants.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 2 pounds |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 1989 |
| Circulation mintage | 4,392,825 |
| Composition | Nickel-brass (single metal) |
| Weight | 15.98 g |
| Diameter | 28.4 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Milled, no lettering |
| Designer | John Lobban |
| Portrait | Maklouf |
Other 1989 £2 coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 Claim of Right £2 Coin | 381,400 | Collector premium |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the Bill of Rights and Claim of Right £2 coins?
Only the inscription circling the design. The Bill of Rights coin marks the English settlement of 1689 and the Claim of Right coin the Scottish one. Both show the W&M cypher, mace and crown by John Lobban, but the Scottish coin had a far smaller mintage.
How many 1989 Bill of Rights £2 coins were made?
The circulation mintage was 4,392,825. That is a healthy figure for a single-metal £2, so this coin is common compared with the Claim of Right version from the same year, which had only 381,400 struck for circulation.
Mintage figures: Two pound coin (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.