2011 Olympic Sailing 50p
The 2011 Olympic Sailing 50p is a circulating 50p with 1.75 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
- 1,749,500
- 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 Sailing 50p worth?
1.75 million were made, so the 2011 Olympic Sailing 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 Sailing 50p rare?
- No. 1.75 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2011 Olympic Sailing 50p coins were made?
- 1,749,500 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2011 Olympic Sailing 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 Sailing 50p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 27.3 mm 50p, including commemoratives, is legal tender in the UK.
Why the 2011 Olympic Sailing 50p was made
Sailing has been part of the Olympics since 1900, after weather wiped out the planned races in 1896. For London 2012 the competition moved to the Dorset coast, with Weymouth and Portland hosting ten events in a range of boat classes from windsurfers to keelboats. Ben Ainslie won the Finn class there, taking his fourth straight Olympic gold and fifth Olympic medal overall. That made him the most decorated sailor in Olympic history. Spectators could watch the medal races from the shore, a rare thing for a sport usually held far out at sea. The Paralympic sailing regatta used the same waters a few weeks later.
Sailing is one of 29 sports featured on the Royal Mint's 2011 Olympic and Paralympic 50p series. Its design came from the 2009 public competition, with members of the public sending in ideas for each sport. The coins were fed into change through 2011 and 2012. Sailing landed close to the middle of the set by mintage, almost level with Basketball. It is a popular coin in coastal towns, for obvious reasons.
How to recognize it
The reverse shows three sailing boats crossing stylized waves, their sails filled and angled across the coin. It is a simple, airy design with plenty of open space, which makes the triangular sails easy to spot even on a worn example. No other coin in the series uses sails, so identification is straightforward. The straight edges of the sails are a good guide to wear: on a crisp coin they are sharp, on a worn one they soften. The London 2012 emblem is included on the reverse, as it is throughout the set. The obverse shows Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the date 2011, used across every design in the set. It is a normal 50p in every physical respect: seven-sided, 27.3 mm across, with a plain edge.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2011 Olympic Sailing 50p by the numbers
Measured by how many were made, the 2011 Olympic Sailing 50p ranks 20th lowest of 76 circulating 50p coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2011 Olympic Basketball 50p (1.75 million); the next more common is the 2011 Olympic Wheelchair Rugby 50p (1.77 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1973 EEC Hands 50p with 89.8 million, about 51 times as many. The scarcest is the 1992 Single Market 50p with 109,000, 16 times fewer than this one.
2011 brought 29 other circulating 50p designs, from the Olympic Football (1.13 million) up to the WWF (3.4 million). 14 of them had a smaller run.
Within the 2011 Olympic and Paralympic set of 29, it ranks 15th scarcest, behind the Football, Wrestling and Judo and others.
What to check on your 2011 Olympic Sailing 50p
- Confirm the design. The reverse should match the Olympic Sailing 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 1,749,500 struck for circulation, Sailing has a mid-range mintage for the Olympic series. In circulated condition it is a face value coin. The large open field around the boats shows scratches and bag marks clearly, so a clean example looks much better than a typical one from change. The Royal Mint sold collector pack versions alongside the circulating coins. A pack coin keeps the bright, frosted luster of a new strike with no contact marks. Choose the cleanest field you can find.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 50 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2011 |
| Circulation mintage | 1,749,500 |
| 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
How many Sailing 50p coins were struck?
The Royal Mint struck 1,749,500 Sailing 50p coins for circulation, only 1,500 more than the Basketball design. That puts it in the middle of the 29 coin Olympic series, so it is generally a face value coin.
Where were the London 2012 sailing events?
Olympic sailing was held at Weymouth and Portland on the Dorset coast. Ben Ainslie won the Finn class there, his fourth consecutive Olympic gold. The coin, dated 2011, was issued before the Games took place.
Mintage figures: Fifty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.