The 2011 Olympic 50p Coins: All 29 Sports

How the set came about

The designs came from a public competition, which is why the styles vary so much from coin to coin. Each reverse shows one sport. The portrait side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's image of the Queen with the 2011 date. The Paralympic sports are included too: Boccia, Goalball and Wheelchair Rugby sit alongside Athletics, Aquatics and the rest.

Because so many designs appeared at once, the set became one of the most popular things to collect from change in Britain. It got plenty of people started on coins.

All 29 Olympic 50p coins by mintage

The four to look for

Mintages for most sports sit between about 1.4 and 2.2 million. Four fell clearly lower. They're the coins that hold up most sets:

• Football: 1,125,500
• Wrestling: 1,129,500
• Judo: 1,161,500
• Triathlon: 1,163,500

Telling the sports apart

Most designs show athletes or equipment from the sport, so they're easy to recognize. Football is the one that catches people out: its design is a small diagram explaining the offside rule rather than a player in action. When in doubt, compare yours with the pictures on each sport's page.

What they're really worth

Over 1.1 million of even the scarcest design exist, so none of these is rare in any strict sense. The four lowest can bring a small premium in good condition. The rest trade close to face value, while a complete set in sharp condition is worth more to a collector than any single coin from it. Click a sport in the table below for its own page. Keep the ones you find out of your pocket so the detail doesn't wear.

How the set came about

When London was chosen in 2005 to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, beating Paris in the final round of voting, the Royal Mint started planning how to bring the event into people's pockets. Its answer was a separate 50p design for every one of the 26 Olympic sports at London 2012, plus three sports played only at the Paralympics. That made 29 designs in all, from Aquatics to Wrestling, with Boccia, Goalball and Wheelchair Rugby representing the Paralympic program.

Rather than commission professional artists, the Royal Mint opened the design process to the public. Its competition in 2009 drew thousands of entries from people of all ages and backgrounds, children among them. One winning design was chosen for each sport. The designers' names are recorded by the Royal Mint, which credits each winning entrant. The Athletics design came from a separate children's competition, while the Football design used the coin to explain the offside rule. The Aquatics design was changed before release when water lines across the swimmer's face were removed, though a few of the original version still reached collectors.

Every coin in the series is dated 2011, but they did not all arrive at once. The Royal Mint released them into change gradually through 2011 and 2012, which gave people a steady reason to check every 50p they were handed. Altogether 53,272,613 Olympic 50ps were struck for circulation. Mintages range from 3,345,500 for Archery down to 1,125,500 for Football. That spread is what makes some designs far easier to find than others.

Completing the set from change

You can still complete this set from change if you're patient. Check every 50p you're given. Ask friends and family to do the same. Swap duplicates with other collectors rather than spending them. Most of the 29 designs had mintages between about 1.6 and 2.2 million, so they turn up regularly. An album with a labeled slot for each sport makes it easy to see what you still need. If the last few gaps refuse to appear, Royal Mint collector pack coins are a tidy way to finish.

The hardest four are Football, Wrestling, Judo and Triathlon, each with a mintage of around 1.1 million. Football is the lowest at 1,125,500, followed by Wrestling at 1,129,500, Judo at 1,161,500 and Triathlon at 1,163,500. Tennis comes next at 1,454,000. Condition matters more than most people expect. A heavily worn or scratched coin fills a gap but won't hold collector interest. A crisp, lustrous example of a low mintage design can carry a real premium over face value.

Frequently asked questions