British Five-Pound Coin: A UK Coin Collecting Item

The United Kingdom is a sovereign nation composed of the countries England, Wales, Scotland and the Northern Ireland. The pound sterling is the unit of currency utilized in many transactions of the British and some Irish societies. The Great Britain as it is popularly called has minted coins for many centuries now. The faces of the sides of the coins display the side facet of the reigning monarch and British emblems.

The pound sterling is denominated into pence and they appear in coins. Recently, the one pound, two pounds and five pounds sterling appeared in metallic coins instead of bank notes. The one pound and two pounds sterling are commonly used in dealing with transactions. In contrast to the two coins, the British five-pound coin is rarely used in transactions and it is more of a commemorative coin of the British crown.

UK coin collecting is an interest of coin collectors who are into searching and keeping British coins in an orderly fashion. Numismatists, who are into UK coin collecting, produce albums and storage of coins minted in the United Kingdom. The widespread popularity of UK coin collecting is attributed to the characters of British coins being collector's items and at the same time investments for future return.

The British five pound coin is among the collector's items in UK coin collecting. The coin that has begun to be minted in 1990 is an alloy of copper and nickel. It has three quarters copper and the remainder percentage is nickel. The face of the reigning monarch is an effigy of the coin. However, in some occasions, other effigies are minted on the reverse side of the coin.

Some notable effigies designed to be minted on the reverse side of the five pound coin are the portraits of the late Princess of Wales, Diana in right face; Prince Charles; map of the British Isles; coat of arms of the queen's husband, Prince Philip and other events that resemble Britain and the British Monarch. The designs of the coin commemorate the start of the millennium; the death of Princess Diana; the birthdays of the Queen Mother, the Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth II; and the wedding anniversary of the British grand royal couple. From 1990 to the present, there are almost 20 different effigies minted on the reverse side of the coin.

The almost twenty different facets of the British five pound coins is an enough reason to make them valuable collector's items in the UK coin collecting system. Collecting one has a margin of rarity; however, its worth is has the attribute of the royalty of Britain.