2011 Olympic Boxing 50p
The 2011 Olympic Boxing 50p is a circulating 50p with 2.15 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
- 2,148,500
- 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 Boxing 50p worth?
2.15 million were made, so the 2011 Olympic Boxing 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 Boxing 50p rare?
- No. 2.15 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2011 Olympic Boxing 50p coins were made?
- 2,148,500 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2011 Olympic Boxing 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 Boxing 50p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 27.3 mm 50p, including commemoratives, is legal tender in the UK.
Why the 2011 Olympic Boxing 50p was made
London 2012 was a landmark Games for boxing. Women's boxing appeared at the Olympics for the first time. Britain's Nicola Adams won the flyweight title to become the first woman ever crowned Olympic boxing champion. Luke Campbell took bantamweight gold and Anthony Joshua won the super heavyweight division on the final weekend. The bouts filled a big arena in London's Docklands that stayed loud from the first session to the last. Boxing itself first joined the modern Olympics in 1904.
The Boxing 50p was released as part of the Royal Mint's 29 coin series marking the sports of London 2012. Each design came from a member of the public through the competition held in 2009. The coins were issued into change across 2011 and 2012. Because the coins all carry the 2011 date and went out before the Games, the design records the sport as it was before that breakthrough summer for women's boxing rather than celebrating any result. It's a snapshot of the sport on the eve of a historic Games.
How to recognize it
The reverse shows a pair of boxing gloves, a simple and instantly readable symbol of the sport. There are no fighters on this coin, which makes it one of the easier designs to spot when you're sorting through a pile of change. The gloves carry the eye straight to the middle of the coin. The London 2012 emblem is part of the reverse design too, tying it to the Games. The obverse carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II with the date 2011, shared by every coin in the set. It is a standard 50p in every physical respect: seven sides, 27.3 mm, with a plain edge.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2011 Olympic Boxing 50p by the numbers
In mintage terms the 2011 Olympic Boxing 50p ranks 31st lowest of 76 circulating 50p coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2011 Olympic Equestrian 50p (2.14 million); the next more common is the 2011 Olympic Boccia 50p (2.17 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1973 EEC Hands 50p with 89.8 million, about 42 times as many. The scarcest is the 1992 Single Market 50p with 109,000, 20 times fewer than this one.
It was released in 2011 alongside 29 other circulating 50p designs, from the Olympic Football (1.13 million) up to the WWF (3.4 million). 23 of them had a smaller run.
Within the 2011 Olympic and Paralympic set of 29, it ranks 24th scarcest, behind the Football, Wrestling and Judo and others.
What to check on your 2011 Olympic Boxing 50p
- Confirm the design. The reverse should match the Olympic Boxing 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 2,148,500 struck for circulation, Boxing is one of the more plentiful designs in the Olympic series and a face value coin in circulated condition. You'll see it fairly often in change. Since the design has large raised areas on the gloves, those high points are the first places to wear. A coin that has been around a while can look quite flat. The Royal Mint made the series available in collector packs too. Those have bright, unbroken luster and fine detail on the gloves, which makes a side by side comparison with a coin from change very obvious.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 50 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2011 |
| Circulation mintage | 2,148,500 |
| 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
What does the Boxing 50p look like?
The reverse shows a pair of boxing gloves with the London 2012 emblem. The obverse has Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the date 2011, the same date as every coin in the Olympic 50p series.
Is the Boxing 50p one of the rare Olympic coins?
Not at all. With 2,148,500 struck for circulation it is among the higher mintages in the series. The scarcer designs are Football, Wrestling, Judo and Triathlon, each with only around 1.1 million coins made.
Mintage figures: Fifty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.