Volleyball 50p

Introducing the Volleyball 50p Coin

There are two forms of the sport: indoor volleyball and beach volleyball. Volleyball, as an indoor sport, joined the Summer Olympics program for both men and women in 1964 at the Tokyo Games. Beach volleyball officially joined the Summer Olympics in 1996 at the Atlanta Games, also for both men and women. The two versions have differences in their scoring system (beach is best of three while indoor is best of five), players per side (beach is played with doubles while indoor has a team of six), court sizes (beach is 16m x 8m while indoor is 18m x 9m), and even the size and weight of the balls (beach is lighter and slightly bigger while indoor is heavier). 

Volleyball 2011 50p

The Volleyball 50p was designed by Daniela Boothman, a bank sales representative from Lancashire. The design features a tense scene in a during a women’s beach volleyball match. Three players are reaching up towards the flying volleyball, which is depicted with rays of light. The London 2012 logo is at the top. 

In her interview with the Royal Mint Museum, Daniela described her inspiration for the idea. “My inspiration for the design, when I was doing the design for the coin I did a lot of research into the game and I looked through books and pictures online just to get a feel for it because volleyball is not something you see every day on the TV so I wanted to have a look at the movement of the players and when I captured that I printed loads of stuff off and was drawing all over it and the net going across the coin, my design instinct just led me to do that and I thought it looked good at that angle and the lines coming off the ball as well I thought it would really balance out the coin so a bit of research more than anything and a lot of research into how the players looked.”

(Caption: Pictogram for the Indoor Volleyball event at the 2012 London Olympics)

How Much is the Volleyball 50p Coin Worth?

The highest price on eBay for any version of the Volleyball 50p, as of October 2019, is £15.45 for a Brilliant Uncirculated coin still in its original packaging. 

How Many Volleyball 50p Coins Were Made in Circulation?

The Royal Mint released 2,133,500 Volleyball 50p coins into circulation. 

Other Versions of the Volleyball 50p Coin

There are three versions of the Volleyball 50p. The first is the circulation coin, the second is the Brilliant Uncirculated version, and the last is the harder to find Silver Proof coin (mintage 30,000). 

Other Olympics Coins

Do you want to know more about the 29 London Olympics 50p coins? Chancery Coins has a guide that covers everything. 

If you want to find more 2012 Olympic Games related coins, there is also the £2 coin series for the Handover Ceremony and the £5 coin series for the countdown to the 2012 Games. If you want  other Olympic Games coins, you can get the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics 50p and the £2 coin for the 100^th anniversary of the 1908 London Games  in 2008.