The Royal Mint has, for the first time in its history, put motorsport on an official UK coin. Launched at 9am on 29 June 2026, the new 50p marks a century of the Grand Prix in Britain, and folds the whole hundred years into a single design that runs from a 1926 Brooklands racer to a 2026 Formula 1 car.
It is a milestone the Mint has never reached before. A thousand years of British coinage have honoured monarchs, anniversaries, naturalists and Olympians, but never the sport of motor racing. The Grand Prix Centenary 50p is the first, and the Mint chose to unveil it exactly where the story started.
A Century in a Single Coin Face
The reverse, designed in collaboration with the London agency Interstate, credited on the coin as Interstate Creative Partners, and a studio that has worked with the FIA and Formula 1 for more than twenty five years, does something most commemoratives don’t even attempt. It puts two cars on the same face, a hundred years apart, and lets the gap between them tell the story.
On one side sits a historic racing car drawn from the original 1926 Brooklands race. On the other, a cutting edge Formula 1 car engineered for the 2026 World Championship. Between the paired dates 1926 and 2026, a chequered flag, and the inscription GRAND PRIX CENTENARY, the design reads as a single sweep of technical evolution rather than a pair of portraits. Several editions in the range carry that idea further with colour, bringing the Union Jack into the design as a nod to the race’s British home.
The obverse uses the Martin Jennings portrait of King Charles III, carrying the standard legend CHARLES III · D · G · REX · F · D · 50 PENCE · 2026.
Where It All Began: Brooklands, 1926
The Mint unveiled the coin at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, the world’s first purpose built motor racing circuit, and the venue that hosted Britain’s First Grand Prix on 7 August 1926. To mark the occasion, the coin was photographed alongside a Delage: a car from the team that took first, second and third in that inaugural race, organised by the Royal Automobile Club, and the only car to appear at both the 1926 and 1927 events.
From there the British Grand Prix moved on. It has been run at Silverstone since 1948, two years before it became an annual fixture on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar, and the circuit has since gathered a century’s worth of defining moments, from Nigel Mansell’s dramatic 1987 win to Lewis Hamilton crossing the line on three wheels in 2020.
The Mint produced the centenary issue in partnership with Brooklands Museum, whose chief executive Alex Patterson described the 1926 race as a defining moment not just for Brooklands but for the development of international motor racing in the UK. Rebecca Morgan, Director at The Royal Mint, called the coin a true landmark, noting that for one hundred years the British Grand Prix has run from the thundering engines of Brooklands to the wheel to wheel battles at Silverstone, and that this is the first time the Mint has been able to celebrate any of it on a coin.
The Range, from £15 to £2,420
The centenary is issued across a full spread of editions, so collectors can buy in at almost any level.
The entry point is the Brilliant Uncirculated 50p at £15.00, struck in cupro-nickel and pitched squarely at Grand Prix fans and younger collectors. Above it, a Brilliant Uncirculated Colour edition at £25.00 adds the Union Jack colour printing and pop out presentation packaging; it is a Royal Mint exclusive, limited to 10,000 (with a maximum mintage of 10,003).
The silver tier opens with the Silver Proof Colour coin at £92.50, .925 sterling silver, struck to Proof standard, colour printed, and presented in an acrylic display block, in a limited edition of 2,500. The standout of the silver range is the Silver Proof Piedfort Colour coin at £160.00: struck at double the usual thickness, it is the largest coin in the range, with a 16 gram weight and a limited edition of 1,000.
At the top sits the Gold Proof 50p at £2,420.00, struck in 916.67 gold to a limited edition of just 100 (maximum mintage 162) and available to order, with shipping expected in late July. It is the latest Royal Mint gold coin produced from recycled gold, drawn from old jewellery and coins, as part of the Mint’s stated aim to produce all of its collectable gold coins from recycled gold by the end of the year. Every coin in the range shares the 27.30mm diameter of a standard 50p.
The range at a glance
| Edition | Price | Mintage | Finish | Metal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brilliant Uncirculated | £15.00 | Not limited | Brilliant Uncirculated | Cupro-nickel |
| Brilliant Uncirculated Colour | £25.00 | 10,000 (max 10,003) | Brilliant Uncirculated, colour | Cupro-nickel |
| Silver Proof Colour | £92.50 | 2,500 (max 2,511) | Proof, colour | .925 sterling silver |
| Silver Proof Piedfort Colour | £160.00 | 1,000 (max 1,010) | Proof piedfort, colour | .925 sterling silver |
| Gold Proof | £2,420.00 | 100 (max 162) | Proof | 916.67 gold |
Strike Your Own
For collectors who want a hand in the making, the Mint is also opening up the strike. From 7 July to 2 August, visitors to The Royal Mint Experience in Llantrisant can strike their own Grand Prix in Britain 50p, a fitting bit of participation for a coin built around a sport where the smallest mechanical margins decide everything.
For the dedicated 50p collector, the centenary is a clean must have: a first of its kind theme, a strong dual era design, and a price ladder that reaches from pocket money to a recycled gold trophy piece. For the wider Grand Prix audience, it is something rarer still, the first time a British coin has carried the sport at all, arriving in the same year the championship marks its hundredth on home ground.
