2012 Royal Shield 50p Coin
The 2012 Royal Shield 50p is a 50p coin struck for circulation with 32.3 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2012
- Circulation mintage
- 32,300,030
- 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 2012 Royal Shield 50p worth?
32.3 million were made, so the 2012 Royal Shield 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
- A sets-only date or a low circulation year
- A genuine mint error
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 2012 Royal Shield 50p rare?
- No. 32.3 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2012 50p coins were made?
- 32,300,030 were struck for circulation.
- What is the 2012 Royal Shield 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 2012 Royal Shield 50p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 27.3 mm 50p is legal tender in the UK.
The 2012 50p coin in context
The 2012 Royal Shield 50p ended a three-year gap. No regular 50ps had been made for circulation in 2009, 2010 or 2011, when commemoratives did the job. The Kew Gardens coin came in 2009, the Girlguiding centenary in 2010, then the 29 Olympic and Paralympic sports designs dated 2011 flooded change ahead of the London Games. In 2012 the Royal Mint went back to the regular design, striking 32,300,030 for circulation. London hosted the Olympic Games that summer and the Queen celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, so it was a busy year for special coins.
That run made 2012 the largest Royal Shield 50p so far, larger than 2008. After three years without a fresh regular coin, banks needed new stock. Many of the Olympic sports 50ps were pulled from change by people hunting the set, so the regular design was needed to keep the tills supplied. The 2012 date is the most common Royal Shield 50p you will find from the early years of the design and still turns up in change often.
How to recognize it
Matthew Dent's reverse shows its section of the Royal Arms shield, with FIFTY PENCE in words and no numeral. Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen in a tiara is on the obverse with the date and her Latin titles. It is the standard small cupronickel 50p, 27.3 mm wide and 8 g, with its seven curved sides. Nothing on the coin marks it as the Diamond Jubilee or Olympic year. The 2012 date is the only sign. Rank-Broadley's IRB initials sit below the bust. The coin matches the 2008 Royal Shield in every way except the date, so shield 50ps look identical across the years apart from the portrait change of 2015.
The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.
2012 Royal Shield 50p by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2012 Royal Shield 50p ranks 17th lowest of 34 50p dates and varieties from 1969 to 2023. The next scarcer is the 2000 Britannia 50p (27.9 million); the next more common is the 2004 Britannia 50p (35.3 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1997 Small Britannia 50p with 456.4 million, about 14 times as many. The scarcest is the 2023 Atlantic Salmon 50p with 200,000, 162 times fewer than this one.
Compared with the dates around it, the 2012 output was 1.4 times the 2008 figure and 3.1 times the 2013 figure.
Over the 2010s the Mint produced 274.8 million regular 50p coins across 11 dates and varieties; the 2012 Royal Shield 50p accounts for 12% of that.
What to check on your 2012 Royal Shield 50p
- Confirm the date. Most dates are common, so the date and any variety decide whether a coin is worth setting aside.
- Check the size: this date is the 27.3 mm coin introduced in 1997, which weighs 8.0 g, with seven curved sides.
- 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.
A 2012 Royal Shield 50p is a common coin and a face value find in change. It is mainly of interest as the date that followed the sets-only years of 2009, 2010 and 2011. If you are building a date run, those three are the harder coins. Uncirculated 2012 examples are easy to find in Royal Mint annual sets. Coins that spent years in tills pick up scratches on the flat parts of the shield. Look for one with clean fields if you want a nice example for an album.
Royal Shield 50p (2008 to 2022)
Britannia's last batch of 50ps was dated 2008. Later that year Matthew Dent's Royal Shield took over, the winning entry in an open Royal Mint competition to redesign every coin from 1p to the pound. Each coin from 1p to 50p carries one section of the shield from the Royal Arms, so placing the six together rebuilds the full shield, while the pound coin shows it whole. The 50p keeps the 27.3 mm, 8 g cupronickel blank of 1997. It reads FIFTY PENCE in words, with no numeral.
Two portraits appear in this era. Ian Rank-Broadley's runs until 2015, when Jody Clark's portrait, the fifth of the reign, took over, so 2015 exists with both. Output swung wildly. Commemorative 50ps took over the circulation role in many years, from Kew Gardens and the 2011 Olympic sports designs to Beatrix Potter's characters, which left no Royal Shield 50ps made for change in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018 or 2021. Those dates come only from collector sets.
The years that were issued vary from just 1,800,000 in 2017 to 122,000,000 in 2019. Card payments grew quickly through these years and banks returned plenty of used coins, so new orders often stayed small. Every Royal Shield 50p is legal tender. When sorting, check the date first and then the portrait: a sets-only date in your change came from a broken set, while a 2017 or 2022 is worth putting aside. Most others are face value coins.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 50 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2012 |
| Circulation mintage | 32,300,030 |
| 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 |
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no 2011 Royal Shield 50p in change?
In 2011 the Royal Mint struck the Olympic and Paralympic sports 50ps for circulation instead of the shield. The 2011 regular coin came only in collector sets, as did 2009 and 2010.
How many 2012 50ps were made?
The Royal Mint struck 32,300,030 Royal Shield 50ps for circulation in 2012. It is a common date and a face value coin, the first regular 50p in change after three sets-only years.
Mintage figures: Fifty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.