Nowadays you can find a commemorative £2 coin or 50 pence in your change and collectors are able to make nice collections from these new issues from the Royal Mint.
Since the mid 1980s commemorative coins have been issued alongside our normal decimal currency, although the first bi-metal £2 coin was issued and generally recognised for circulation in 1997 there was in fact a larger / thicker £2 coin first made in 1986. These thicker £2 coins were only issued in five different years between 1986 and 1996 with each coin commemorated a different subject.
£5 commemorative coins have also been issued, the first being minted in 1990 and these are still being minted each year to this day.
Since the arrival of the new twelve sided £1 coin the old style round £1 coin has also been seen as a nice collection to have ranging from the first issue in 1983 to the final circulating coin in 2016.
The most popular of the new modern commemorative issues has to be the 50 pence coin, although the first small size 50 pence coins was stuck in 1997 the first commemorative issue was in 1998 for the 50th anniversary of the NHS. The Royal Mint have continued to make these commemorative 50 pence issues with a wide ranging subject mater from the 2012 Olympics to the Beatrix Potter 150th anniversary.
In 2018 & 2019 the Royal Mint also made an alphabet series of 10 pence coins issuing 26 coins in each year.
These modern commemorative issues are a great and fun way to start collectors both young and old, although a lot of these coin you can find in your change are not highly valuable there are a few exceptions to that rule, the 2009 Key Gardens 50 pence coin is, in our opinion the best and most valuable.
