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Unwilling Numismatist

50p, the actual numbers so far....

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In the latest Royal Mint bulletin, they quote figures for "LEP" and MCM" for each coin but never explain what this means - it's obviously something to do with mintage but what exactly ?

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11 minutes ago, secret santa said:

In the latest Royal Mint bulletin, they quote figures for "LEP" and MCM" for each coin but never explain what this means - it's obviously something to do with mintage but what exactly ?

Could the LE stand for 'Limited Edition', and the CM for 'Confirmed Mintage'? No idea what the other letters would be unless the final P is 'Production', or even 'Proof' to indicate there is also a proof issue for that coin?

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22 minutes ago, secret santa said:

In the latest Royal Mint bulletin, they quote figures for "LEP" and MCM" for each coin but never explain what this means - it's obviously something to do with mintage but what exactly ?

Did a live chat thing with the Royal Mint, using your question - this is a copy and paste of the transcript:- 

 

  1.  
Quote

 

  1. Server Message:

    Please wait. An operator will be with you shortly.

     11:59:20 AM
  2.  
    Kaz Said:

    Good Morning Michael, my name is Kaz. How can I help?

     11:59:20 AM
  3.  
    You Said:

    In the latest Royal Mint bulletin, they quote figures for "LEP" and MCM" for each coin but never explain what this means - it's obviously something to do with mintage but what exactly ?

     11:59:41 AM
  4.  
    Kaz Said:

    LEP is Limited Edition Presentation - so the coin, in that exact presentation, is limited to that number.

     12:00:24 PM
  5.  
    Kaz Said:

    MCM is Maximum Coin Mintage - the maximum number of coins, in that particular metal, we can produce.

     12:00:41 PM
  6.  
    Kaz Said:

    For example, if a Silver Proof coin has an LEP of 20,000 but an MCM of 30,000 that means we can mint up to 30,000 in Silver Proof, but only 20,000 of them will be in the presentation pictured. The rest will then be used in other presentations

     12:01:32 PM
 


 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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10 minutes ago, Peckris 2 said:

Could the LE stand for 'Limited Edition', and the CM for 'Confirmed Mintage'? No idea what the other letters would be unless the final P is 'Production', or even 'Proof' to indicate there is also a proof issue for that coin?

You weren't that far off, Chris.

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Just now, secret santa said:

Thanks Mike - I wonder why they don't explain that in their documents ?????

Richard, the constant use of initials/abbreviations really gets on my pip. It's not just the RM, but everywhere. I wouldn't mind so much if they used them, but the top one was asterixed (sp) to the words explaining what the abbreviations stood for. 

Recently I got an e mail at work that was full of them - I just returned to the sender listing all of them and saying "sorry, don't have a scooby doo what you are on about". Probably a bit offhand in all fairness, but I'd just lost patience.      

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On 10/16/2019 at 9:17 PM, Unwilling Numismatist said:

And the old ones:

image.png.2944fe19240e41986e4fb2037b6d9e2b.png

Where are those numbers from please Kev,i thought the 1985 seemed low and just read its 3,400,000.

Do you know which is right please ?

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682,103 is correct. 

Royal Mint mintage figures

ETA: In fact I remember in the pre 1997 days, it was a slight turn up for the books if you got a 1985 50p in your change. I think I only ever got two in 12 years.   

 

 

Edited by 1949threepence
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1 hour ago, PWA 1967 said:

Where are those numbers from please Kev,i thought the 1985 seemed low and just read its 3,400,000.

Do you know which is right please ?

Royal Mint Pete, hopefully they have a fairly good idea of what they're doing :)

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The 1968 figure is bizarre .. yet true .. the 50p hadn't been introduced yet. :lol:

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Did anybody ever get a 1992 single market 50p in their change. I know there was only a few years window of opportunity, but was just wondering. Needless to say, I never did.   

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17 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Did anybody ever get a 1992 single market 50p in their change. I know there was only a few years window of opportunity, but was just wondering. Needless to say, I never did.   

same here

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the 1973 hands coin had a much larger mintage

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On 28 October 2019 at 8:24 PM, copper123 said:

the 1973 hands coin had a much larger mintage

it was the first 50p for 3 years.

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On 28 October 2019 at 8:24 PM, copper123 said:

the 1973 hands coin had a much larger mintage

it was the first 50p for 3 years.

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On 10/25/2019 at 11:16 PM, Peckris 2 said:

The 1968 figure is bizarre .. yet true .. the 50p hadn't been introduced yet. :lol:

proofs or patterns prob exist

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14 hours ago, copper123 said:

proofs or patterns prob exist

I've not heard of any - the first proofs were the 1971 set. I think  those were struck in the early 70s at the London Mint  who were too busy before 1971 to bother with proofs.

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On 10/25/2019 at 12:03 PM, 1949threepence said:

For example, if a Silver Proof coin has an LEP of 20,000 but an MCM of 30,000 that means we can mint up to 30,000 in Silver Proof, but only 20,000 of them will be in the presentation pictured. The rest will then be used in other presentations

I presume that "other presentations" will include providing some to Westminster Mint for their sales ?

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I'd imagine that's where they go as the RM don't seem to do the final numbers when you take the sets into account.

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I would imagine there are around 100,000 serious collectors of decimal coins , the rest end up in drawers of people who are vaguely interested or might have found a couple of interesting coins in their change.

There are more than enough to go round even with a million minted the kew 50p is now I believe highly overhyped , only my opinion though

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I think there are a lot more 50p collectors than 100,000. I do the local markets regularly and I have at least a dozen really serious collectors and dozens more trying to get sets together for their children/grandchildren. Jemima Puddleduck at 2.1 million does not seem common enough to fill all these collections as I am constantly asked for it. With the even lower mintages for most of the 2018 50ps expect a blood bath!

Part of the problem is a lot of the collectors for children/grandchildren want to get more than one complete set. I have one regular who is trying to get 5 sets of all the 50ps AND the £2s AND the old £1s! Very good business for me, but hard work keeping up with all their needs.

 

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The key question is "when we go cashless, is the interest in real coins going to fade away or get a boost through their rarity ?"

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