A lot of people don’t realise that there are actually two different London Underground £2 coins – the Train design and the Roundel design – but what are they worth today, and are they even rare?
According to recent values on eBay in 2022, the Train design sells for an average of £3.76 and the Roundel design sells for an average of £3.21.
It can be confusing to understand the differences between the coins, so we’ll take you through the designs first so you can learn how to tell them apart. Afterwards, we’ll dive into the specifications of each coin to see how rare they really are.
The Two London Underground £2 Coins
Fortunately for us, the two designs are quite unique and it should be easy to tell them apart once you know which one is which.
London Underground Train £2 Coin Design
The Train design is probably the most recognisable of the pair and features a tube train coming out of a tunnel.
This reverse design was created by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby and has an edge inscription ‘Linear representation of the Tube map’.
London Underground Roundel £2 Coin Design
The Roundel design features the London Underground’s logo with a linearly sketched background. This design was created by Edwina Ellis and has an edge inscription reading ‘MIND THE GAP’.
Both coins have the portrait of Queen Elizabeth I designed by Ian-Rank Broadley FRBS, which was used on all £2 coins from 1998 to 2015.
London Underground £2 Coin Mintage and Rarity
The London Underground £2 coin mintage figures are shown below.
- Train Design mintage = 1,690,000
- Roundel Design Mintage = 1,560,000
Mintages around 1.5 million are definitely on the lower end of the spectrum when you consider all £2 coins currently in circulation.
For example, the rarest £2 coin is the 2002 Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games £2 coin which had a mintage of 485,000. Other popular £2 coins, like the Charles Dickens £2 coin, have much larger mintage figures around the 8 million mark – so you can definitely consider the London Underground coins as rare.
Uncirculated Versions
Apart from the circulating supply, the Royal Mint also produced other versions of the coins for sale as they typically do with most coins.
Both the Train and Roundel designs were also released in limited numbers in brilliant uncirculated, silver proof, silver proof piedfort and gold proof for collectors.
The figures for the Roundel design are shown below:
- Brilliant Uncirculated – 34,400
- Silver Proof – 4,374
- Silver Proof Piedfort – 648
- Gold Proof – 191
The Train design figures are as follows:
- Brilliant Uncirculated – 34,400
- Silver Proof – 5,231
- Silver Proof Piedfort – 672
- Gold Proof – 199
Why Were They Made And What Do They Commemorate?
The London Underground coins were made to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, which began service on the 10th January 1863 and to this day serves over a billion passengers every year.
The underground was built as part of the Metropolitan Railway which was the first underground passenger-carrying railway system in the world. This railway was built to meet the increasing demand for transportation in London due to the large population growth in the first half of the 19th century.
The tunnels were first built using a cut-and-cover method where a trench is dug out and roofed over with an overhead support system. This method led to the underground nickname ‘the tube’ which remains to this day.
Since its establishment, the London Underground has gone on to be one of the worlds leading underground public transportation systems in terms of both technology and infrastructure.
Where Can You Buy Them?
Now you’ve learnt all about the coins, you’re probably wondering where the best place is to buy them.
eBay is usually the first place we suggest for circulated coins. There are multiple listings added each week with various examples on offer, just be sure to take your time before you buy if you decide to go down this route. You’ll also find other highly collectable coins on eBay such as the Paddington Bear 50p coins.
For the other versions of the coin, such as Brilliant Uncirculated or the Silver/Gold versions, coin dealerships are the best place to look.
As these coins have been around since 2013 they have sold out many years ago on the Royal Mint website – meaning you’ll have to either get a private deal or buy from a different online store.
Are There Any Error Versions?
There are currently no confirmed errors for the London Underground £2 coins.
Although eBay would lead you to believe that there are several errors, there are non that have been confirmed by the Royal Mint. This is a typical tactic used to artificially increase the value of a listing for the sellers to make a quick profit.