2020 20p Coin
The 2020 20p is a 20p coin struck for circulation with 32.7 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2020
- Circulation mintage
- 32,725,000
- 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 2020 20p worth?
32.7 million were made, so the 2020 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 2020 20p rare?
- No. 32.7 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2020 20p coins were made?
- 32,725,000 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2020 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 2020 20p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 20p, including the undated 2008 coin, is legal tender in the UK.
The 2020 20p coin in context
The Royal Mint struck 32,725,000 20ps in 2020, a sharp fall from the 125,125,000 of 2019. The reason is easy to guess. The pandemic closed shops and pushed people toward contactless payment. Many businesses stopped taking cash at all for a while and people who had always paid in coins got used to tapping a card. With fewer coins being spent there was less call for new ones from the banks.
The figure is low by the standards of the 20p. Among circulating dates of the Queen's reign only the 1992 rose coin, the 2008 rose coin and the 2021 came in lower. It is still tens of millions of coins, which is why the 2020 turns up in change without much hunting. The year also set the pattern for what followed: 2021 dropped further still and the coin never returned to the volumes of the 2010s during the Queen's reign. For many collectors 2020 marks the point where the 20p stopped being a coin made by the hundred million and became one made only as needed.
How to recognize it
The obverse shows Jody Clark's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in the George IV State Diadem, with JC below the neck and the date 2020 in the legend. The reverse carries Matthew Dent's segment of the Royal Shield with TWENTY PENCE. Specifications are unchanged since 1982: a seven-sided coin of 21.4 mm and 5 g, struck in cupronickel with a plain edge and curved sides of constant width. A 2020 coin looks identical to a 2019 or 2021, so check the legend beside the portrait to confirm the year. Laid out with the other five shield coins, it slots into its own place in the full arms.
The other side carries Jody Clark's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, introduced in 2015 and the last of her reign.
2020 20p by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2020 20p ranks 5th lowest of 41 20p dates and varieties from 1982 to 2023. The next scarcer is the 1992 20p (31.2 million); the next more common is the 1991 20p (35.9 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1982 20p with 740.8 million, about 23 times as many. The scarcest is the 2023 20p with 525,000, 62 times fewer than this one.
Compared with the dates around it, the 2020 output was 3.8 times fewer than 2019 and 1.7 times the 2021 figure.
Over the 2020s the Mint produced 95.7 million 20p coins across 4 dates and varieties; the 2020 20p accounts for 34% of that.
What to check on your 2020 20p
- Confirm the date. Most dates are common, so the date and any variety decide whether a coin is worth setting aside.
- Count the sides: a genuine 20p has seven curved sides, measures 21.4 mm and weighs 5 g.
- 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.
Circulated 2020 20ps are face value coins, but the date is low enough that collectors like to keep a sharp one. Uncirculated coins came in the annual sets. In change, pick out examples with clean fields and a crisp shield, since the flat areas of the design show scratches clearly. It is a good date to put aside now while bright coins are still easy to find, before years in circulation wear them down. Pandemic dates are also a talking point that many casual collectors enjoy.
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 | 2020 |
| Circulation mintage | 32,725,000 |
| Composition | Cupronickel (84% copper, 16% nickel) |
| Weight | 5.0 g |
| Diameter | 21.4 mm |
| Shape | Seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) |
| Edge | Plain |
| Portrait | Clark |
Frequently asked questions
Why were so few 20p coins made in 2020?
The pandemic cut cash use sharply as shops closed and people paid by card, so banks needed fewer new coins. Output fell to 32,725,000 from 125,125,000 the year before and stayed low afterward.
Is a 2020 20p rare?
Not really. It is a low year for the 20p but still tens of millions of coins. Worn ones are face value and sharp uncirculated ones draw at most a small premium, so keep a clean one for a date run.
Mintage figures: Twenty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.