Royal Mint 2017 Year of Rooster Coin Collection

In anticipation for 2017 the Royal Mint has announced the latest incarnation of its popular Shēngxiào (Lunar Year) Collection. For a fourth year running talented artist Wuon-Gean Ho provides the design. Despite being a third of the way through the zodiac calendar I have noticed a gradual reduction in mintage figures, specifically the Five Ounce Silver which had a 2014 mintage of 1,488 compared with just 388 for 2017.

Yet again the mint has made changes to its selection of coins, deciding to remove the One Kilo Gold and the Philatelic cover which will bug some collectors.

	Denomination	Metal	Weight	Diameter	Mintage
One Ounce Silver Proof	£2	.999 Silver	31.21g	38.61mm	3,888
Five Ounce Silver Proof	£10	.999 Silver	156.295g	65.00mm	388
One Kilo Silver Proof	£500	.999 Silver	1005g	100mm	68
1/10 Ounce Gold Brilliant Uncirculated	£10	.999 Gold	3.13g	16.5mm	2088
One Ounce Gold Proof	£100	.999 Gold	31.21g	32.21mm	688
Five Ounce Gold Proof	£500	.999 Gold	156.295g	50mm	38

Counterfeit £1 Coin Statistics

The counterfeiting of 1 pound coins is a growing problem and each year thousands are removed from circulation and tests are conducted to estimate how many are in circulation. Below I have created two charts from the data available from the Royal Mint and other sources on the web.

Sources

• https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220827/foi_poundcoins_narrative.pdf
• http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/annual-report
• http://www.coinauthentication.co.uk/newsletter13.html

Kew Garden 50p Coin

Probably the most sought after coin in circulation, the Kew Garden 50p was released in 2009 with a reported mintage figure of 210,000. However this is misleading because an even larger amount was sold as collector's items which puts the coin's reported mintage figure much higher. By adding up the production figures of all the sets that included the Kew Garden 50p we get a more accurate mintage figure of the Kew Garden coin.

Royal Mint 2015 Year of Sheep Coin Collection

Carrying on from 2014 the Royal Mint has released the second series of coins in its lunar collection. This year is the year of the Sheep and artist Wuon-Gean Ho has returned to design the series' second coin.

Interestingly the Royal Mint have decided to add two new coin; a Five-Ounce Gold Proof Coin and a One Ounce Gold-Plated Silver Proof Coin.

	Mintage
Tenth Ounce Gold BU	2,888
One Ounce Silver Proof PNC	2,015
One Ounce Silver Proof	9,888
Ounce Gold Plated Silver Proof	4,888
One Ounce Gold Proof	888
Five Ounce Silver Proof	1,088
Five-Ounce Gold Proof	38

Royal Mint 2014 Year of Horse Coin Collection

Starting from 2014 each year the Royal Mint plans to release a series of lunar coins for each the 12 zodiac animals. 2014 starts with the year of the horse. Artist Wuon-Gean Ho has been commissioned to design all 12 coins.

There are 5 coins in the year of the Horse series.

	Mintage
One Ounce Silver Proof PNC	2014
One Ounce Silver Proof Coin	8,888
Five Ounce Silver Proof Coin	1,488
Tenth-Ounce Gold BA Coin	2,888
One Ounce Gold Proof Coin	888