It’s that time of the year when Britain’s Royal Mint releases its annual finalised mintage figures for their commemorative coin range, and this time it’s the numbers for the 2023 dated range that’s been published. This doesn’t just cover the precious metals, so the mint’s brilliant uncirculated base-metal issues are also detailed there, some racking up impressive numbers.

The sales numbers reveal some of the coins have genuine rarity, particularly with gold, which even allowing for the costs, are very low indeed. Some examples of the gold proof range have startlingly low mintages. A good example is the entrant in their Music Legends range, featuring The Police. The 2oz coin had a mintage of 150 pieces, yet the final sales number was just 6 units, and the same was true of the Shirley Bassey coin.

The 50 pence coins seem to do well, especially when the subject is related to popular culture, such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, or the various children’s literary works, but the general take is that few coins sell out their mintages in full. If you have any 2023 dated Royal Mint coins, this is a fascinating resource, and we strongly urge you to have a look.

You can access the page here.