2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 50p
The 2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 50p is a circulating 50p with 1.77 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
- 1,765,500
- 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 Wheelchair Rugby 50p worth?
1.77 million were made, so the 2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 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 Wheelchair Rugby 50p rare?
- No. 1.77 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 50p coins were made?
- 1,765,500 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 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 Wheelchair Rugby 50p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 27.3 mm 50p, including commemoratives, is legal tender in the UK.
Why the 2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 50p was made
Wheelchair rugby was invented in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1977 by athletes with impairments affecting all four limbs who wanted a team sport that suited them. Early players called it murderball, which tells you plenty about its style. Teams of four, which can include both men and women, carry a ball across the opponent's goal line in reinforced chairs built to take heavy collisions. Each player is given a classification value and the four on court must not exceed a set combined total. The sport appeared as a demonstration event in 1996 and became a full Paralympic medal sport at Sydney in 2000.
Wheelchair rugby is one of three Paralympic-only sports in the Royal Mint's 2011 50p series, with Boccia and Goalball. Its design came from the 2009 public competition and the coins went into circulation during 2011 and 2012. The London tournament was played in the temporary Basketball Arena in the Olympic Park in front of big, noisy crowds. Australia won the gold medal. For many spectators it was their first look at the sport. The coin sits close to the middle of the series by mintage.
How to recognize it
The reverse shows a wheelchair rugby player in action, driving forward in a sports chair whose wheel guards carry the dents of hard collisions. The chair, with its angled wheels, is what makes the design instantly recognizable. Nothing else in the series looks like it. The emblem of the London 2012 Games features on the reverse. On the obverse is Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the date 2011, shared by every coin in the set. Check the wheels when you judge condition, since their rims sit high and wear smooth fairly quickly. Measure it and you'll get 27.3 mm, the standard size for a seven-sided 50p with a plain edge.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 50p by the numbers
Measured by how many were made, the 2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 50p ranks 21st lowest of 76 circulating 50p coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2011 Olympic Sailing 50p (1.75 million); the next more common is the 2011 Olympic Hockey 50p (1.77 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1973 EEC Hands 50p with 89.8 million, about 51 times as many. The scarcest is the 1992 Single Market 50p with 109,000, 16 times fewer than this one.
2011 brought 29 other circulating 50p designs, from the Olympic Football (1.13 million) up to the WWF (3.4 million). 15 of them had a smaller run.
Within the 2011 Olympic and Paralympic set of 29, it ranks 16th scarcest, behind the Football, Wrestling and Judo and others.
What to check on your 2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 50p
- Confirm the design. The reverse should match the Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 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 1,765,500 struck for circulation, Wheelchair Rugby has a mid-range mintage for the Olympic series. Once it has seen circulation, it's a face value coin. Its appeal is less about scarcity and more about what it represents, since it is one of only three coins in the set showing a sport unique to the Paralympics. The Royal Mint also issued this sport in collector packs. Coins from packs have bright, untouched luster, while a coin from circulation shows dulled surfaces and contact marks across the field.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 50 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2011 |
| Circulation mintage | 1,765,500 |
| 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
How many Wheelchair Rugby 50p coins are there?
The Royal Mint struck 1,765,500 Wheelchair Rugby 50p coins for circulation. That puts it near the middle of the 29 coin Olympic and Paralympic series, so a circulated example is generally a face value coin.
Why is wheelchair rugby on a 50p?
The 2011 series covered both the Olympic and Paralympic Games of London 2012. Wheelchair rugby is one of three sports in the set played only at the Paralympics, the others being Boccia and Goalball.
Mintage figures: Fifty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.