Latest news with #LordKitchener
Western Telegraph
19-05-2025
- General
- Western Telegraph
Royal Mint's reveals 9 rarest £2 coins in circulation in UK
Included in the Royal Mint's list of the rarest £2 coins in the UK are number of commemorative Commonwealth Games coins from 2002, and a special commemorative First World War coin. While experts have urged everyone to check their change for another First World War inspired coin, which could be worth more than £500. Originally released in 2014 by the Royal Mint, the coin commemorates 100 years since the start of the First World War. The coin shows the face of Lord Kitchener who featured on the 'Your Country Needs You' posters. While a normal version of the coin will be worth no more than its face value of £2, a batch of the coins featured a rare error that boost their value for collectors. On some of the coins the words 'Two Pounds' are missing on the head side of the coin. According to experts at Coin Hunter, 5,720,000 of these coins are still in circulation but it appears to be 'very rare' to find one without a date. It isn't clear exactly how many of coins with an error remain in circulation but the first of its kind sold in March 2020 for £500. Recommended Reading: Coin Hunter experts said on Facebook: "Check your coins that feature Lord Kitchener. "If the heads side does not show 'TWO POUNDS' - you have an error that appears to be very rare." Royal Mint rarest £2 coins These are the 9 rarest £2 coins according to the Royal Mint, and their mintage. A Royal Mint spokesman said: 'It's been 27 years since the first UK £2 coins were struck for circulation, sparking a year of celebrations, but the coin's history actually stretches back to 1986 when the first commemorative UK £2 coin was struck for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. 'This was the first time a sporting event had been commemorated on UK coinage. 'Although these coins have the same diameter as the post-1997 circulating £2 coin, they are single-coloured nickel brass and much heavier.'
Telegraph
17-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Reeves is fiddling with Isas while Rome burns
Your country needs you, said Lord Kitchener's infamous recruitment poster for the Great War. Today, your country wants you to risk not your life, but your savings. We live in an age of economic nationalism, with the pendulum swinging decisively away from the globalist trends of recent decades towards a more inward-looking approach to economic management. It should therefore come as no surprise that the Starmer Government wants to marshal more of the nation's savings to the purpose of specifically British investment. Everyone else does it. Most countries channel a much greater proportion of their savings resources into domestic enterprise than we manage, so why should the UK remain the odd one out? I'll tell you why in a moment. But first a little background. As regular readers of this column will know – I have written about it often enough – low levels of investment are a key economic weakness for the UK. Relative to most other major economies, we consume too much and we save and invest too little. We are particularly poor when it comes to investing in our own country, preferring instead the seemingly higher returns offered by overseas markets – especially the US. If Britain is ever to throw off its productivity slough, it needs to be investing a lot more in its future. For the moment, we are stuck in a self-reinforcing doom-loop of decline, where low levels of investment feed into weak productivity growth, which in turn makes the UK an even less attractive place to invest. Frog-marching British savers into investing in UK plc is a key objective for Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, and it comes in two different forms. One is to strong-arm pension funds into committing a defined minimum of their assets to unlisted, UK equity investment. The other is to either cut the amount of cash that can be invested in individual savings accounts (Isas) – or to abolish cash Isas entirely – in the hope that this might force savers to invest in UK equities instead. This second line of attack also has an ulterior motive, in that it would remove at least some part of the tax shelter cash Isas provide, and will therefore mean that more of the interest earned from holding cash will get taxed. Last week brought some progress in the first of these two approaches. Thanks in part to the intermediation of Alastair King, 17 of the City's biggest defined contribution pension providers have been persuaded to commit at least 10pc of their default funds to unlisted investment – of which at least a half will be in UK unlisted securities. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming into agreeing, with the threat of making it mandatory still hanging like a sword of Damocles above their heads should they fall short. But let's not be curmudgeonly about it. Cajoling companies as big as Aviva and Legal & General to lay aside their concerns over breach of fiduciary duty is a significant achievement. Sadly, it's also hardly transformational. Total pension fund assets within the scope of this new, so-called Mansion House Accord, amount to £252bn – leaving the sums to be devoted to the sort of UK infrastructure, clean energy and business start-up investment the Government wants pursued at 'just' £12.5bn. This is not to be sneezed at. But in the context of total UK business investment of around £300bn annually, barely touches the sides. What's more, the far bigger pool of UK savings in now almost entirely closed final salary pension schemes is left untouched by the new accord. That's in part because these funds are required for a still higher purpose – supporting the national debt. Indeed, these so-called defined benefit pension schemes are far and away the biggest single source of buying in the UK gilts market. Without their demand, the Government would struggle to fund itself at current interest rates. This makes the Treasury particularly wary of meddling in the plethora of liability matching rules and regulations that force final salary pension funds to max out on government debt. It's an unhealthily symbiotic relationship in which the one relies on the other, and in itself goes some way to explaining Britain's shamefully poor investment record. With public indebtedness swelling from around 20pc of national income 30 years ago to 100pc today, private investment has been all but crowded out. The nation's savings have flowed into public debt instead. What is more, in terms of improvement in the nation's productive capacity, we have virtually nothing to show for it. Nearly all the money raised has been flushed down the drain of current consumption. In return, pension funds have received a growing mountain of Treasury IOUs. Liability for pensioner entitlements has in effect been loaded onto future generations of taxpayers. Thanks to higher interest rates, Britain's defined benefit pension schemes mercifully find themselves back in balance once more. It's a God-given opportunity for many of them to start investing in higher return UK equities again. But they need the Government to act to make this happen, and it seems unlikely the Treasury would want to risk such an important source of funding for the UK gilts market by forcing things. There's so much wrong with the pensions and savings market in the UK as it stands that it's hard to know where to start. Getting back to a situation where some 40pc to 50pc of available equity investment goes into domestic equity markets, as occurs in the US and Australia, requires root and branch reform. The voluntary half measures so far announced certainly won't do the trick. They are too timid and too beholden to vested interest – including those of the major savings institutions and the Government itself. Plus, they put the cart before the horse. There's a good reason investors prefer overseas markets to our own, and that's because the UK is an increasingly unattractive place to invest. By whacking up taxes on companies, and by further burdening them with much higher minimum wages and worker protections, the Government has made matters even worse. It's entirely reasonable to expect pension and Isa savers to do more to support the domestic economy given the tax breaks they enjoy. But first there's got to be something worth investing in. State-directed investment is rarely a sound use of money, and it is even less so when the funds are channelled into projects that would otherwise struggle to attract commercial backing. Until the UK investment environment as a whole improves, initiatives such as the Mansion House Accord amount to just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Glasgow Times
17-05-2025
- General
- Glasgow Times
Royal Mint's reveals 9 rarest £2 coins in circulation in UK
Included in the Royal Mint's list of the rarest £2 coins in the UK are number of commemorative Commonwealth Games coins from 2002, and a special commemorative First World War coin. While experts have urged everyone to check their change for another First World War inspired coin, which could be worth more than £500. Originally released in 2014 by the Royal Mint, the coin commemorates 100 years since the start of the First World War. The coin shows the face of Lord Kitchener who featured on the 'Your Country Needs You' posters. While a normal version of the coin will be worth no more than its face value of £2, a batch of the coins featured a rare error that boost their value for collectors. On some of the coins the words 'Two Pounds' are missing on the head side of the coin. According to experts at Coin Hunter, 5,720,000 of these coins are still in circulation but it appears to be 'very rare' to find one without a date. It isn't clear exactly how many of coins with an error remain in circulation but the first of its kind sold in March 2020 for £500. Recommended Reading: Coin Hunter experts said on Facebook: "Check your coins that feature Lord Kitchener. "If the heads side does not show 'TWO POUNDS' - you have an error that appears to be very rare." Royal Mint rarest £2 coins These are the 9 rarest £2 coins according to the Royal Mint, and their mintage. A Royal Mint spokesman said: 'It's been 27 years since the first UK £2 coins were struck for circulation, sparking a year of celebrations, but the coin's history actually stretches back to 1986 when the first commemorative UK £2 coin was struck for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. 'This was the first time a sporting event had been commemorated on UK coinage. 'Although these coins have the same diameter as the post-1997 circulating £2 coin, they are single-coloured nickel brass and much heavier.'
North Wales Chronicle
16-05-2025
- General
- North Wales Chronicle
Royal Mint's reveals 9 rarest £2 coins in circulation in UK
Included in the Royal Mint's list of the rarest £2 coins in the UK are number of commemorative Commonwealth Games coins from 2002, and a special commemorative First World War coin. While experts have urged everyone to check their change for another First World War inspired coin, which could be worth more than £500. Originally released in 2014 by the Royal Mint, the coin commemorates 100 years since the start of the First World War. The coin shows the face of Lord Kitchener who featured on the 'Your Country Needs You' posters. While a normal version of the coin will be worth no more than its face value of £2, a batch of the coins featured a rare error that boost their value for collectors. On some of the coins the words 'Two Pounds' are missing on the head side of the coin. According to experts at Coin Hunter, 5,720,000 of these coins are still in circulation but it appears to be 'very rare' to find one without a date. It isn't clear exactly how many of coins with an error remain in circulation but the first of its kind sold in March 2020 for £500. Coin Hunter experts said on Facebook: "Check your coins that feature Lord Kitchener. "If the heads side does not show 'TWO POUNDS' - you have an error that appears to be very rare." These are the 9 rarest £2 coins according to the Royal Mint, and their mintage. A Royal Mint spokesman said: 'It's been 27 years since the first UK £2 coins were struck for circulation, sparking a year of celebrations, but the coin's history actually stretches back to 1986 when the first commemorative UK £2 coin was struck for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. 'This was the first time a sporting event had been commemorated on UK coinage. 'Although these coins have the same diameter as the post-1997 circulating £2 coin, they are single-coloured nickel brass and much heavier.'
Glasgow Times
10-05-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
Royal Mint: The rare £2 coin sold for more than £500 on eBay
Experts have highlighted the rare coin, which is still believed to be in circulation and features an error that makes it extremely valuable. The £2 coin was originally released by the Royal Mint in 2014 to mark 100 years since the start of the First World War. It features the face of Lord Kitchener, the face on the "Your Country Needs You" posters. While a normal version of the coin will be worth no more than its face value of £2, a batch of the coins featured a rare error that boost their value for collectors. On some of the coins the words 'Two Pounds' are missing on the head side of the coin. According to experts at Coin Hunter, 5,720,000 of these coins are still in circulation but it appears to be 'very rare' to find one without a date. It isn't clear exactly how many of coins with an error remain in circulation but the first of its kind sold in March 2020 for £500. Coin Hunter experts said on Facebook: "Check your coins that feature Lord Kitchener. "If the heads side does not show 'TWO POUNDS' - you have an error that appears to be very rare." Royal Mint rarest coins from Queen Elizabeth II's reign Here is a list of rare coins compiled by the Royal Mint, with information about the year of release, denomination, design features and whether or not the coin is still in circulation: The rarest coins minted during Queen Elizabeth II's reign (Image: Royal Mint/PA) 2019, 10p, a set of 'A to Z' coins celebrating Britain. Letters Y, W and Z each had a mintage of 63,000, yes. 2019, 10p, also from the A to Z collection, the letter R had a mintage of 64,000, yes. 2019, 10p, all other letters in the A to Z collection had a mintage of 84,000, yes. 1992-1993, 50p, the coin celebrated the UK's presidency of the Council of Ministers and the completion of the European single market. The design included a representation of a table with 12 stars, linked by a network of lines and the mintage was 109,000. The Mint said this was the lowest number of its 50ps issued into circulation, no. 2009, 50p, the design features the Kew Gardens pagoda with a decorative leafy climber twining in and around the tower, 210,000, yes. 2018 dated, 10p, the A to Z 10p collection celebrating Britain, each letter in this year had a mintage of 220,000, yes. 2015, £2, this coin paid tribute to the Royal Navy and its role during the First World War, and had a mintage of 650,000, yes. 2015, £2, it featured Britannia for the first time on a circulating £2 coin, with a mintage of 650,000, yes. 1985, 50p, the coin featured a figure of Britannia, with a shield, with a mintage of 682,103, no. 2002, £2, four £2 coins celebrating each home nation for the Commonwealth Games. Mintage figures for Scotland were 771,750, for Wales, 588,500, for Ireland, 485,500, and for England 650,500, yes. 2012, £2, the coin celebrated the closing of the 2012 Olympics and had a mintage of 845,000, yes 2008, £2, the coin marked the centenary of the Olympic Games, with mintage of 910,000, yes. 2008, £2, the coin marked the end of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, with a mintage of 918,000, yes. 2011, £2, the coin commemorated 400 years since the King James Bible was published, with a mintage of 975,000, yes. 2018, 50p, a series of coins celebrated Beatrix Potter's classic tales, with a mintage of 1,400,000 each for the Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny designs, yes. 2011, 50p, a series of coins celebrating the London 2012 Olympics. Mintages included 1,454,000 for tennis, 1,161,500 for judo and 1,129,500 for wrestling, yes. 2010-2011, £1, a series of round pound coins featuring official badges of capital cities in the UK. They had mintages of 935,000 for Edinburgh, 2,635,000 for London and 1,615,000 for Cardiff, no. 2008, £1, the round pound coin featured the UK's Royal Arms, with a mintage of 3,910,000, no. What makes a coin valuable? The 50 pence piece has become the most valued and collected coin in the UK, with many collectable designs appearing on its heptagonal canvas. Recommended Reading: Its 27.5mm diameter makes it the largest of any British coin, and allows space for decorative pictures. It has often been used to celebrate big events over the past 50 years of British history. The rarest coins tend to be of the greatest value, with the mintage (number of coins with each design made) being the fundamental attraction for collectors. Along with the design, other aspects of the coin which increase value are the condition of the coin and whether it has an error in its design. The way in which it is sold can also determine the coin's value - while some coin collectors will bid vast amounts of money on eBay or at auction, others opt for more robust valuations by selling via a coin dealer.
