2012 5p Coin

Quick answers

Is the 2012 5p rare?

No. 339.8 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.

How many 2012 5p coins were made?

339,802,350 were struck for circulation.

What is the 2012 5p made of?

Nickel-plated steel. It weighs 3.25 g and measures 18 mm.

Is the 2012 5p still legal tender?

Yes. The current-size 5p is legal tender, for payments of up to 5 pounds in 5p and 10p coins.

How to recognize it

The other side carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, used from 1998 to 2015.

The 2012 5p is round, 18 mm across and nickel-plated steel.

2012 5p by the numbers

Measured by how many were made, the 2012 5p ranks 38th lowest of 46 5p dates and varieties from 1968 to 2023. The next scarcer is the 2001 5p (337.9 million); the next more common is the 2013 5p (378.8 million).

For scale, the most common is the 1990 5p with 1.63 billion, about 4.8 times as many. The scarcest is the 1977 5p with 24.3 million, 14 times fewer than this one.

Compared with the dates around it, the 2012 output was 6.7 times the 2011 figure and 1.1 times fewer than 2013.

Over the 2010s the Mint produced 3.37 billion 5p coins across 11 dates and varieties; the 2012 5p accounts for 10% of that.

What to check on your 2012 5p

• Confirm the date. Most dates are common, so the date and any variety decide whether a coin is worth setting aside.
• Try a magnet: 2012 5p coins are nickel-plated steel and stick to it.
• 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.

Matthew Dent's shield five pence (2008 to 2022)

In 2008 the Royal Mint replaced the reverses of all six coins from 1p to 50p for the first time since decimal designs were introduced. Matthew Dent won the open competition with an idea that turned the coins into a puzzle. Each one carries a single section of the Royal Shield of Arms. Laid side by side in the right order, they form the whole shield, while the round pound of the period showed it complete on one coin. The 5p's section comes with FIVE PENCE written in words and no numeral at all, so the value has to be read rather than glanced at.

The metal changed next. From 2011 the 5p has been made of nickel-plated steel instead of solid cupronickel, mainly to cut the cost of nickel. The new coin keeps the 18 mm size and 3.25 g weight but is slightly thicker. Its steel core also makes it magnetic. A magnet is the quickest way to tell a 2011 or later coin from an earlier one. The portrait changed in 2015, when Jody Clark's likeness of the Queen, signed JC, replaced Ian Rank-Broadley's, so that year comes in two versions.

Most shield 5ps were made by the hundred million, with a peak of 885,004,520 in 2014. Then the use of cash fell away. The 2018 coins were made only for sets and output slid through the pandemic years to 28,000,000 in 2021, the lowest of the shield design. Apart from 2018, which you are unlikely to meet in change, none are rare, but the later dates are noticeably harder to find than the early ones. Check any 2015 coin for the portrait. Keep the cleanest 2019 to 2022 coins you come across, since those are the gaps collectors are filling.

Mintage chart

Specifications