2011 Olympic Handball 50p
The 2011 Olympic Handball 50p is a circulating 50p with 1.68 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2011
- Circulation mintage
- 1,676,500
- Value band
- Face value
- Composition
- Cupronickel (75% copper, 25% 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 2011 Olympic Handball 50p worth?
1.68 million were made, so the 2011 Olympic Handball 50p 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 no scratches or contact marks
- Original Royal Mint pack or presentation folder
- A genuine mint error, 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 2011 Olympic Handball 50p rare?
- No. 1.68 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2011 Olympic Handball 50p coins were made?
- 1,676,500 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2011 Olympic Handball 50p made of?
- Cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel). It weighs 8.0 g and measures 27.3 mm, with a seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) shape.
- Is the 2011 Olympic Handball 50p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 27.3 mm 50p, including commemoratives, is legal tender in the UK.
Why the 2011 Olympic Handball 50p was made
Handball is fast, physical and hugely popular across much of continental Europe, though few people in Britain had watched it before 2012. Two teams of seven, goalkeepers included, pass and bounce the ball by hand and try to throw it past the keeper into a goal, without stepping inside the area around it. Indoor handball joined the Olympics at Munich in 1972, after a single outdoor appearance in 1936. As hosts, Great Britain entered men's and women's teams. Early matches filled the Copper Box in the Olympic Park and won the sport a lot of new fans. France won the men's title and Norway the women's.
Handball's 50p was one of 29 sports coins the Royal Mint released for the Games. Its design, like most in the series, came from a member of the public through the 2009 competition. The coin went into change during 2011 and 2012 and finished with a mintage in the lower half of the set, so it can take a while to find. Once you've seen a handball match, the design makes immediate sense.
How to recognize it
The reverse shows a handball player leaping high to shoot, arm raised with the ball, against the lines of a handball court. The figure is airborne and angled across the coin, which gives the design a lot of energy. That jump shot is the classic image of the sport, so it's easy to identify once you know what you're looking at. The London 2012 emblem is there on the reverse, marking it out from everyday 50ps. The obverse shows Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the date 2011, shared by the whole series. Size and shape are standard for a 50p: seven sides, 27.3 mm across and a plain edge.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2011 Olympic Handball 50p by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2011 Olympic Handball 50p ranks 13th lowest of 76 circulating 50p coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2011 Olympic Taekwondo 50p (1.66 million); the next more common is the 2011 Olympic Modern Pentathlon 50p (1.69 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1973 EEC Hands 50p with 89.8 million, about 54 times as many. The scarcest is the 1992 Single Market 50p with 109,000, 15 times fewer than this one.
It shared 2011 with 29 other circulating 50p designs, from the Olympic Football (1.13 million) up to the WWF (3.4 million). 8 of them had a smaller run.
Within the 2011 Olympic and Paralympic set of 29, it ranks 9th scarcest, behind the Football, Wrestling and Judo and others.
What to check on your 2011 Olympic Handball 50p
- Confirm the design. The reverse should match the Olympic Handball described above and carry the date 2011; similar designs from other years are a common mix-up.
- Weigh it if you can: a genuine 27.3 mm 50p weighs 8.0 g. Copies are often light, slightly soft in detail or the wrong color.
- Ignore painted or colored versions sold online as special editions. Color added after the coin left the Mint does not make it a Royal Mint issue and does not add collector value.
- Look at the surfaces under a bright light. Coins straight from a pack have unbroken luster; change-worn coins show scuffs on the high points of the portrait and design.
With 1,676,500 struck for circulation, Handball sits in the lower half of the Olympic series, a little more common than Taekwondo and a little scarcer than Modern Pentathlon. Circulated, it is a face value coin, though people completing a set often find it one of the slower ones to turn up. Condition is worth paying attention to. The player's arm and the ball sit on the high points and wear quickly. Like the rest of the series, this design was sold in Royal Mint collector packs. Those keep a crisp, lustrous finish that circulated coins lose within a few months of handling.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 50 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2011 |
| Circulation mintage | 1,676,500 |
| Composition | Cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel) |
| Weight | 8.0 g |
| Diameter | 27.3 mm |
| Shape | Seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) |
| Edge | Plain |
| Portrait | Rank-Broadley |
Other 2011 50p coins
Frequently asked questions
Is the Handball 50p hard to get?
It is somewhat harder than average. The Royal Mint struck 1,676,500 for circulation, putting it in the lower half of the 29 Olympic designs. It still turns up in change. A circulated example is generally a face value coin.
What sport is on the Handball 50p?
It shows Olympic handball, the indoor team sport where two sides of seven throw the ball into a goal. The coin pictures a player jumping to shoot, along with the London 2012 emblem and a 2011 date.
Mintage figures: Fifty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.