1979 5p Coin

Quick answers

Is the 1979 5p rare?

No. 155.5 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.

How many 1979 5p coins were made?

155,456,000 were struck for circulation.

What is the 1979 5p made of?

Cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel). It weighs 5.65 g and measures 23.59 mm.

Is the 1979 5p still legal tender?

No. The original large 5p stopped being legal tender in 1990, after the smaller coin arrived. Collectors still keep scarce dates.

How to recognize it

The other side carries Arnold Machin's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used on UK coins from 1968 to 1984.

The 1979 5p is round, 23.59 mm across and cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel).

1979 5p by the numbers

Measured by how many were made, the 1979 5p ranks 19th lowest of 46 5p dates and varieties from 1968 to 2023. The next scarcer is the 1975 5p (141.5 million); the next more common is the 2015 Rank-Broadley Portrait 5p (163 million).

For scale, the most common is the 1990 5p with 1.63 billion, about 11 times as many. The scarcest is the 1977 5p with 24.3 million, 6.4 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 1979 output was 2.5 times the 1978 figure and 1.4 times fewer than 1980.

Over the 1970s the Mint produced 690.1 million 5p coins across 10 dates and varieties; the 1979 5p accounts for 23% of that.

What to check on your 1979 5p

• Confirm the date. Most dates are common, so the date and any variety decide whether a coin is worth setting aside.
• Try a magnet: cupronickel 5p coins like this 1979 coin do not stick, while the steel coins of later years do.
• 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.

The large crowned thistle five pence (1968 to 1989)

The 5p was one of the first two decimal coins Britain ever saw. It went into circulation in April 1968 with the 10p, almost three years before Decimal Day on 15 February 1971. The trick that made this possible was size. The new coin matched the shilling exactly, 23.59 mm across and 5.65 g in weight, so it could be spent as a shilling while the old money was still in use and simply carry on afterwards as five new pence. Shillings stayed legal tender alongside it until the end of 1990.

Christopher Ironside designed the reverse: a thistle beneath a royal crown, the badge of Scotland, with a large figure 5. Until 1981 the wording reads NEW PENCE, a reminder that the system was new. From 1982 it reads FIVE PENCE instead. Arnold Machin's portrait of the Queen in a tiara is on the obverse until 1984, with the legend ELIZABETH II D G REG F D and the date. Raphael Maklouf's portrait, with the Queen in the George IV State Diadem, replaced it in 1985. The coin is cupronickel of 75% copper and 25% nickel with a milled edge.

Output was very uneven. Huge runs in 1970 and 1980 sit beside long gaps when no 5ps were made for change at all: 1972 to 1974, 1976 and every year from 1981 to 1986. Those dates exist only in the Royal Mint's annual sets. The lowest circulation figure is 1977, at 24,308,000. None will reach you in change today, because the large 5p stopped being legal tender at the end of 1990 after the smaller coin arrived. Old jars and drawers are where they hide now. Look for sharp thistle leaves and a clear crown, since those are the first details to wear away.

Mintage chart

Specifications