2016 Battle of Hastings 50p
The 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p is a circulating 50p with 6.7 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2016
- Circulation mintage
- 6,700,000
- Value band
- Face value
- Designer
- John Bergdahl
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 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p worth?
6.7 million were made, so the 2016 Battle of Hastings 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 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p rare?
- No. 6.7 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p coins were made?
- 6,700,000 were struck for circulation.
- Who designed the 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p?
- The design is credited to John Bergdahl.
- What is the 2016 Battle of Hastings 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 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 27.3 mm 50p, including commemoratives, is legal tender in the UK.
Why the 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p was made
On 14 October 1066 William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold II near Hastings in Sussex. Harold was killed in the fighting and William was crowned king of England on Christmas Day that year, beginning Norman rule. The conquest changed the language, law and landscape of England, from the stone castles that sprang up across the country to the many French words that entered English. Harold had marched south after defeating a Norwegian invasion at Stamford Bridge only weeks earlier. Few dates in British history are as widely remembered.
The 950th anniversary in 2016 brought a 50p designed by John Bergdahl, with 6,700,000 struck for circulation. Rather than invent a new scene, he turned to the most famous image of the battle, taken from the embroidered cloth kept in Bayeux in Normandy. That long strip of linen, nearly 70 meters from end to end, tells the story of the conquest in stitched pictures and was made within a few decades of the battle. The coin arrived in a busy year for the 50p, alongside the Beatrix Potter and Team GB designs.
How to recognize it
King Harold is shown being struck in the eye by an arrow, the scene from the Bayeux embroidery that most people link with 1066. The figures keep the flat, stylized look of the original needlework rather than a lifelike drawing. Historians still argue over whether the figure in the original really shows Harold, which adds to the coin's interest. The design is a good example of a coin borrowing directly from a historical artwork. Jody Clark's effigy of the Queen fills the other side. The coin is the 27.3 mm size, edge plain. A medieval warrior with an arrow in his eye can only be this coin. John Bergdahl designed it.
The other side carries Jody Clark's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, introduced in 2015 and the last of her reign.
2016 Battle of Hastings 50p by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p ranks 52nd lowest of 76 circulating 50p coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2014 Commonwealth Games Glasgow 50p (6.5 million); the next more common is the 1994 D-Day Landings 50p (6.71 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1973 EEC Hands 50p with 89.8 million, about 13 times as many. The scarcest is the 1992 Single Market 50p with 109,000, 61 times fewer than this one.
It shared 2016 with 6 other circulating 50p designs: the Jemima Puddle-Duck (2.1 million), the Squirrel Nutkin (5 million), the Team GB (6.4 million), the Beatrix Potter (6.9 million), the Mrs Tiggy-Winkle (8.8 million) and the Peter Rabbit (9.7 million). 3 of them had a smaller run.
What to check on your 2016 Battle of Hastings 50p
- Confirm the design. The reverse should match the Battle of Hastings described above and carry the date 2016; 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.
At 6.7 million, the Hastings coin has an ordinary mintage, so circulated examples sit at face value. Its appeal is the subject: almost everyone in Britain knows the date and it's an easy coin to start a child on. The small, flat figures wear fairly evenly, so judge condition by the arrow and the outline of the king, which soften first. An uncirculated coin has a bright field; one that has been in change shows scratches and rubbing across the figures.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 50 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2016 |
| Circulation mintage | 6,700,000 |
| Composition | Cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel) |
| Weight | 8.0 g |
| Diameter | 27.3 mm |
| Shape | Seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) |
| Edge | Plain |
| Designer | John Bergdahl |
| Portrait | Clark |
Other 2016 50p coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 Peter Rabbit 50p | 9,700,000 | Face value |
| 2016 Mrs Tiggy-Winkle 50p | 8,800,000 | Face value |
| 2016 Beatrix Potter 50p | 6,900,000 | Face value |
| 2016 Team GB 50p | 6,400,000 | Face value |
| 2016 Squirrel Nutkin 50p | 5,000,000 | Face value |
| 2016 Jemima Puddle-Duck 50p | 2,100,000 | Face value |
Frequently asked questions
What is on the Battle of Hastings 50p?
It shows King Harold being hit in the eye by an arrow, taken from the famous embroidered record of the Norman Conquest kept in Bayeux. The coin marks 950 years since the battle of 1066 and was designed by John Bergdahl.
How many Battle of Hastings 50p coins were minted?
The Royal Mint struck 6,700,000 for circulation in 2016. That's a typical figure for a commemorative 50p, so the coin is common and a circulated example is a face value find rather than a rarity.
Mintage figures: Fifty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.