2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p
The 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p is a circulating 50p with 3.9 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 2018
- Circulation mintage
- 3,900,000
- Value band
- Face value
- Designer
- Emma Noble
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 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p worth?
3.9 million were made, so the 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 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 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p rare?
- No. 3.9 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p coins were made?
- 3,900,000 were struck for circulation.
- Who designed the 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p?
- The design is credited to Emma Noble.
- What is the 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 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 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p still legal tender?
- Yes. Every 27.3 mm 50p, including commemoratives, is legal tender in the UK.
Why the 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p was made
The Tailor of Gloucester is a Christmas story. A poor, ill tailor has a fine coat and waistcoat to finish for the Mayor of Gloucester, who is to be married on Christmas morning, but he runs out of cherry-colored twist and takes to his bed. While he lies sick, the mice he has secretly rescued from his cat, Simpkin, sew the coat for him. They leave only one buttonhole undone, with a tiny note saying there was no more twist. Potter based the story on a local tale she heard about a real Gloucester tailor. She printed it privately in 1902 before it was published the following year.
This coin belongs to the third wave of the Royal Mint's Beatrix Potter 50ps, released in 2018 alongside Peter Rabbit, Flopsy Bunny and Mrs. Tittlemouse. Mintages for the 2018 coins were much lower than in 2017. The Tailor of Gloucester had 3.9 million made for circulation, the highest of the 2018 four. That is a fraction of the 25 million Benjamin Bunny coins struck the year before, so this one shows up in change far less often.
How to recognize it
Emma Noble's design shows a mouse sitting on a reel of thread, reading a newspaper, with the words THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER. It is drawn from Potter's illustrations of the busy little tailoring mice. Since several Potter coins feature mice, the reel of thread and the newspaper are the details to look for, along with the full title. Mrs. Tittlemouse, the other 2018 mouse, carries a basket instead. It is dated 2018. The Queen appears on the obverse in Jody Clark's portrait. The coin is a standard 27.3 mm seven-sided cupronickel 50p, plain metal with no color on the version made for change.
The other side carries Jody Clark's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, introduced in 2015 and the last of her reign.
2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p by the numbers
By the numbers, the 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p ranks 39th lowest of 76 circulating 50p coins with a published mintage. The next scarcer is the 2011 WWF 50p (3.4 million); the next more common is the 2016 Squirrel Nutkin 50p (5 million).
For scale, the most common is the 1973 EEC Hands 50p with 89.8 million, about 23 times as many. The scarcest is the 1992 Single Market 50p with 109,000, 36 times fewer than this one.
It shared 2018 with 6 other circulating 50p designs: the Flopsy Bunny (1.4 million), the Peter Rabbit (1.4 million), the Mrs Tittlemouse (1.7 million), the Paddington at the Station (5 million), the Paddington at the Palace (5.9 million) and the Representation of the People Act (9 million). 3 of them had a smaller run.
Within the circulating Beatrix Potter 50p coins, it ranks 5th scarcest, behind the Flopsy Bunny, Peter Rabbit and Mrs Tittlemouse and others.
What to check on your 2018 Tailor of Gloucester 50p
- Confirm the design. The reverse should match the The Tailor of Gloucester described above and carry the date 2018; 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.
A circulation mintage of 3.9 million puts this coin below most modern commemorative 50ps, though well above true rarities. Circulated examples may attract a small premium from collectors completing the Potter set; very worn ones are closer to face value. Look at the mouse's face and the lettering on the newspaper, which are the first spots to wear. The Royal Mint also sold the design in brilliant uncirculated packs, so not every bright coin came from change. A pack coin has smooth, mirror-like fields and no bag marks, while a circulated one is duller and scratched.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 50 pence |
| Issuer | Royal Mint |
| Year | 2018 |
| Circulation mintage | 3,900,000 |
| Composition | Cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel) |
| Weight | 8.0 g |
| Diameter | 27.3 mm |
| Shape | Seven-sided (equilateral curve heptagon) |
| Edge | Plain |
| Designer | Emma Noble |
| Portrait | Clark |
Other 2018 50p coins
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 Representation of the People Act 50p | 9,000,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Paddington at the Palace 50p | 5,901,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Paddington at the Station 50p | 5,001,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Mrs Tittlemouse 50p | 1,700,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Flopsy Bunny 50p | 1,400,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Peter Rabbit 50p | 1,400,000 | Face value |
| 2018 Snowman 50p | Collector issue | Small premium |
Frequently asked questions
Is the Tailor of Gloucester 50p rare?
Not rare, but less common than many 50ps. The Royal Mint struck 3.9 million for circulation in 2018, the most of that year's four Beatrix Potter coins but far fewer than any of the 2017 characters.
What is on the Tailor of Gloucester 50p?
It shows a mouse sitting on a reel of thread reading a newspaper, with the words The Tailor of Gloucester. The design was adapted by Emma Noble from Beatrix Potter's original illustrations of the tailor's helpful mice.
Mintage figures: Fifty pence (British coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Mint figures. How we build these pages.