2001 Marconi £2 Coin
The 2001 Marconi £2 is a circulating £2 with 4.56 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2001
- Circulation mintage
- 4,558,000
- Value band
- Face value
- Designer
- Robert Evans
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 2001 Marconi £2 worth?
4.56 million were made, so the 2001 Marconi £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 2001 Marconi £2 rare?
- No. 4.56 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2001 Marconi £2 coins were made?
- 4,558,000 were struck for circulation.
- Who designed the 2001 Marconi £2?
- The design is credited to Robert Evans.
- What is the 2001 Marconi £2 made of?
- Bimetallic: cupronickel center in a nickel-brass outer ring. It weighs 12.0 g and measures 28.4 mm.
- Is the 2001 Marconi £2 still legal tender?
- Yes. Every two-metal £2 coin, commemoratives included, is legal tender in the UK.
Why the 2001 Marconi £2 was made
On 12 December 1901, Guglielmo Marconi stood on Signal Hill above St John's in Newfoundland and heard the faint clicks of the Morse letter S, sent across the Atlantic from his station at Poldhu in Cornwall. It was the first wireless signal to cross the ocean. It showed that radio could link continents without cables. Within a few years wireless had become standard equipment on large passenger ships. Some scientists had doubted it could be done, since radio waves were expected to travel in straight lines and be lost over the curve of the Earth.
The Royal Mint marked the centenary with a bimetallic £2 in 2001. Marconi, born in Italy, did much of his pioneering work in Britain and set up his wireless business in London. To catch the signal in Newfoundland he flew his receiving aerial from a kite, battling the winter wind on a cold hilltop. The coin is a reminder that radio, television and mobile phones all trace back to experiments like this one. It circulated widely and is still found in change from time to time.
How to recognize it
Robert Evans filled the coin with radio waves, rippling across the center and around the outer border. In the date, a spark of electricity links the two zeros, standing for the generation of the signal. It's an abstract design with no portrait of Marconi, so the waves and the sparking date are the things to look for. The edge confirms it, reading WIRELESS BRIDGES THE ATLANTIC...MARCONI 1901..., with dots separating the phrases and closing the inscription. No other £2 has a spark joining the zeros of its date, so that one detail settles any doubt. The obverse carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait. The coin pairs a silver-colored cupronickel center with a gold-colored nickel-brass ring.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2001 Marconi £2 by the numbers
In mintage terms the 2001 Marconi £2 ranks 26th lowest of 42 circulating £2 coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 1995 End of World War II £2 (4.39 million); the next more common is the 2016 Shakespeare Tragedies £2 (4.62 million).
For scale, the most common is the 2005 End of World War II (VE Day 60) £2 with 10.2 million, about 2.2 times as many. The scarcest is the 1989 Claim of Right £2 with 381,400, 12 times fewer than this one.
It was the only circulating commemorative £2 dated 2001. The regular Technology reverse accounted for another 35 million that year.
What to check on your 2001 Marconi £2
- Read the edge. It should say WIRELESS BRIDGES THE ATLANTIC...MARCONI 1901.... A wrong or missing edge inscription is the quickest sign of a counterfeit.
- Check the two metals: a silver-colored center and a gold-colored ring, with the ring tight and level all the way around.
- Weigh it: a genuine two-metal £2 weighs 12.0 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.
With 4,558,000 struck for circulation, the Marconi £2 is common and you will usually see it at face value. Collectors look for well-preserved coins because the fine wave lines wear flat quickly; on a worn coin the pattern around the border can fade into a smooth band. Bimetallic £2 coins are counterfeited, so give any example a quick check: crisp edge lettering that matches the inscription above, a clear color difference between ring and center and no gap where the two parts meet.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 2 pounds |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2001 |
| Circulation mintage | 4,558,000 |
| Composition | Bimetallic: cupronickel center in a nickel-brass outer ring |
| Weight | 12.0 g |
| Diameter | 28.4 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Lettered: WIRELESS BRIDGES THE ATLANTIC...MARCONI 1901... |
| Designer | Robert Evans |
| Portrait | Rank-Broadley |
Frequently asked questions
What does the edge of the Marconi £2 say?
The edge reads WIRELESS BRIDGES THE ATLANTIC...MARCONI 1901..., dots included. It refers to Marconi's first transatlantic wireless signal, received in Newfoundland in December 1901 from a transmitter at Poldhu in Cornwall, the event the 2001 coin commemorates.
How many 2001 Marconi £2 coins are there?
The Royal Mint struck 4,558,000 for circulation. That is a typical figure for a bimetallic commemorative £2 of the period, so the coin is common. A worn one is a face value coin, while sharp examples bring a small premium.
Mintage figures: Two pound coin (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.