Comic book child rebel, Dennis the Menace, celebrates 75 years with a new issue from The Royal Mint

We wouldn’t normally cover two fifty pence coins from The Royal Mint so close together, but this one snuck up on us just a few days after we covered the new Winnie-the-Pooh release, and the truth is, these 50p issues remain very popular with collectors in the UK, and abroad. It also helps that Dennis the Menace, whose 75th anniversary is the subject of it, is such an unusual icon.

On 17 March 1951, the character appeared in the pages of the anthology comic, The Beano, created by artist David Law, and editor George Moonie, who fought with the Royal marines in WW2. The Beano was first published in 1938, and went on to attain legendary status. It’s the best-selling comic book outside of Japan, selling over 2 billion copies, and the world’s longest running comic magazine, having been published weekly since then. Other creations in its 4000+ issues include Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Lord Snooty, Roger the Dodger, and Biffo the Bear.

Dennis became The Beano’s most popular character almost since its introduction. As you can guess from the name, mischief was his game, and he creates chaos along with, since 1974, his dog Gnasher, an Abyssinian wire-haired tripe hound with a penchant for sausages. The characters have appeared on various other media, including television, and remain popular today.

The coin range is typical of Royal Mint 50p offerings, with a coloured sterling silver variant struck in 8 grams of metal, and a cleanly struck 22kt gold coin at half an ounce, which keeps the same £2,420 price tag that encumbered the Pooh coin. Joining this usual pair is a 0.999 silver kilo variant, which has a mintage of just 3 pieces, only one of which will be offered in boxed form (we suspect the others are pre-allocated somewhere). All variants come boxed with a COA. The base-metal pairing is here again, in uncoloured form with an
unlimited mintage, for £15, and in coloured form for £25, with a mintage cap of 20,000 units. All are available now.