2008 Shield Reverse 20p Coin
The 2008 Shield Reverse 20p is a 20p coin struck for circulation with 115 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2008
- Circulation mintage
- 115,022,000
- Value band
- Face value
- Composition
- Cupronickel (84% copper, 16% nickel)
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 2008 Shield Reverse 20p worth?
115 million were made, so the 2008 Shield Reverse 20p 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
- A sets-only date
- A genuine error such as the undated 2008 mule
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 2008 Shield Reverse 20p rare?
- No. 115 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2008 Shield Reverse 20p coins were made?
- 115,022,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2008 Shield Reverse 20p made of?
- Cupronickel (84% copper, 16% nickel). It weighs 5.0 g and measures 21.4 mm, with a seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) shape.
- Is the 2008 Shield Reverse 20p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 20p, including the undated 2008 coin, is legal tender in the UK.
The 2008 20p coin in context
The Royal Shield 20p arrived in 2008 as part of the first full redesign of British coins since decimalization. Matthew Dent, a young graphic designer, won an open competition with a clever idea: split the Royal Shield into pieces, give each coin from 1p to 50p one piece and let the round pound show the whole shield. The Royal Mint struck 115,022,000 of the new 20p with the 2008 date, almost ten times the rose coins of the same year.
Moving the date off the reverse meant a new obverse with a date on it. At some point in 2008 the new shield reverse was paired with the old dateless obverse and the result left the Mint with no date on either side. The mistake came to light in 2009, when members of the public began spotting the coins in change. The Royal Mint confirmed it and estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 had been released. It was widely reported as the first undated British coin in more than three hundred years. Ordinary dated shield coins are common; the undated mule is the one people search for.
How to recognize it
Dent's reverse shows a segment of the Royal Shield with the words TWENTY PENCE. There is no numeral and no date on that side. On a normal 2008 shield coin the obverse carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen with the date in the legend. On the mule the obverse is the older one used with the rose design, with the Latin titles but no year. Size, weight and alloy are unchanged at 21.4 mm, 5 g and cupronickel. Placed beside the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p and 50p of the same design, the 20p fills its own section of the shield.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2008 Shield Reverse 20p by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2008 Shield Reverse 20p ranks 24th lowest of 41 20p dates and varieties from 1982 to 2023. The next scarcer is the 2006 20p (114.8 million); the next more common is the 2007 20p (117.1 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1982 20p with 740.8 million, about 6.4 times as many. The scarcest is the 2023 20p with 525,000, 219 times fewer than this one.
Compared with the dates around it, the 2008 output was about the same as 2007 and about the same as 2009. Other 2008 20p coins: 2008 Old Reverse 20p (11.9 million).
Over the 2000s the Mint produced 1.26 billion 20p coins across 11 dates and varieties; the 2008 Shield Reverse 20p accounts for 9.2% of that.
What to check on your 2008 Shield Reverse 20p
- Confirm the date and the variety (shield reverse). Most dates are common, so the date and any variety decide whether a coin is worth setting aside.
- Check both sides for a date. The famous 2008 mule has the new shield reverse with the old portrait side, so neither side shows a year.
- Look at the surfaces under a light. Coins from sets have unbroken luster and color; change-worn coins are dull and scuffed.
- Never clean it. Rubbing or dipping strips the original color and leaves fine scratches.
A dated 2008 shield 20p is a face value coin, but it pays to look at every one you handle. Turn the coin over and find the date. If it's on the Queen's side, it's the normal coin. If neither side shows a year, you have the undated mule, which commands a collector premium even in worn condition. Be wary of any coin where the legend looks scraped or has an odd gap, since a genuine mule was struck that way and never altered.
Matthew Dent's Royal Shield twenty pence (2008 to 2022)
In 2008 every coin from 1p to 50p got a new reverse for the first time since decimalization. The Royal Mint had run an open competition and the winner was Matthew Dent, a young graphic designer whose idea was a jigsaw. He cut the Royal Shield into pieces and gave one to each coin, so the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p laid out together rebuild the whole shield, while the round pound of the period showed it complete. The 20p carries its segment of the shield with TWENTY PENCE written in words. There is no numeral and no date on this side.
With the date gone from the reverse it had to move to the portrait side, which meant a new obverse die as well. That change caused the famous undated 20p of 2008: some coins were struck with the new shield reverse and the old obverse, so neither side shows a year. The coin itself stayed the same, seven-sided, 21.4 mm, 5 g and cupronickel. Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait ran until 2015, when Jody Clark's took over, so 2015 comes in two versions. Output swung widely: past 190 million in 2011, past 212 million in 2016, then nothing for change in 2017 or 2018.
For most shield 20ps the only question is condition, since they were made in huge numbers. A few things deserve a second look. First, turn every shield 20p over and make sure a date appears somewhere; if it doesn't, you have the undated mule. Second, the pandemic and the fall in cash use pushed output right down, with 32,725,000 in 2020 and only 19,600,000 in 2021. Third, 2017 and 2018 exist only in sets. Check the portrait on any 2015 coin, since the Rank-Broadley version is the smaller of the two.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 20 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2008 |
| Circulation mintage | 115,022,000 |
| Composition | Cupronickel (84% copper, 16% nickel) |
| Weight | 5.0 g |
| Diameter | 21.4 mm |
| Shape | Seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) |
| Edge | Plain |
| Portrait | Rank-Broadley |
Other 2008 20p coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 Old Reverse 20p Coin | 11,900,000 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
How can you tell if a 20p is the undated mule?
Check both sides. The shield side never has a date, so look at the Queen's side. On normal coins the year is in the legend around her portrait. On the mule there is no year anywhere on the coin at all.
How many undated 20p coins are there?
The Royal Mint estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 undated 20ps were released in 2008. No exact count exists. Many are still thought to be in circulation, so checking every shield 20p in your change can pay off.
Mintage figures: Twenty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.