Special-edition 50p coins produced to commemorate the UK’s anticipated Halloween Brexit are set to be scrapped, after the EU this week agreed to extend the withdrawal deadline.
Former chancellor Philip Hammond originally planned to mark Britain’s exit from the bloc with around 10,000 commemorative coins, for collectors only. But his successor, Sajid Javid, ordered Royal Mint officials to produce up to ten million of the special 50p coins, dated 31 October 2019, the BBC reports.
ITV News says Javid’s revised proposal “was portrayed as a statement of intent that the Treasury was fully behind Brexit”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
However, in a move described by the Daily Mirror as “humiliating”, the Treasury has announce that the coins will be recycled now that an extension has been agreed until 31 January 2020. The department refused to say “how many of the October 31 coins it produced - or how much they cost to mint”, the newspaper adds.
The Royal Mint website states that precious metals, such as 50p coins, are sorted and shredded before being melted down. The metal is then purified and solidified before being recycled into new products.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Get your first six issues for £6–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
There are now plans for mass-circulation coins that will feature the new departure date and the phrase “Friendship with all nations”.
A spokesperson for HM Treasury said: “We will still produce a coin to mark our departure from the European Union, and this will enter circulation after we have left.”
In the meantime, coin collectors will be eager to get their hands on the now-defunct Halloween deadline coins.
As The Sun notes, coins minted with errors are “super popular among collectors” and can be lucrative. Indeed, rare coins can fetch up to 1,000 times their value.
