Elizabeth II 2nd portrait

Description

This is the 1980 BU issue with a mintage of 143,000. Due to the vast quantity required for the decimal changeover and the fact that the Mint was moving from Tower Hill, London to Llantrisant, Wales the coins were minted at both mints during 1970 -1972. no coins were minted in South Wales during 1968 or 1969, while 172,552,900 were minted at Tower Hill in 1968 and 350,873,000 in 1969. In 1970 Llantrisant minted 24,627,000 coins while 105,241,350 were minted at Tower Hill, between 1971 & 1972 568,843,000 coins were minted at Llantrisant while just 42,000 were minted at Tower Hill. Obverse die varieties:1968-77 - obverse 151 beads, reverse 152 beads;1978-81 - obverse 147 beads, reverse 152 beads;Christopher Ironside designed all six new denominations for decimalisation for which he was awarded the OBE in 1971. A full set of the new decimal coins were issued in a blue presentation pack, along with an information card for public use. See: BU (in blue wallet)© LDC63 (CC BY)