Stephen Hawking 50p

BU Coin Summary & Key Facts

The Celebrating the Life of Stephen Hawking 2019 UK 50p Brilliant Uncirculated Coin launched the Royal Mint’s Innovation in Science series on 12 March 2019. Featuring Edwina Ellis’s stylised black hole design and Hawking’s black hole entropy equation, it quickly became one of the most recognisable modern science-themed 50p coins.

Core details specifically for the Brilliant Uncirculated Hawking 50p.

The Hawking BU 50p is basically physics fan-service in coin form: black holes, thermodynamics, and a cameo by the most famous theoretical physicist of modern times, all squeezed into 27.3 mm of cupro-nickel.

• Commemorative theme: Celebrates the life and work of Professor Stephen Hawking, particularly his ground-breaking work on black holes and Hawking radiation. The BU coin also effectively serves as the “episode 1” badge for the entire Innovation in Science series.
• Reverse design details: Edwina Ellis’s design invites you to “fall into” a black hole. It features:
  • a spiralling representation of a black hole’s event horizon,
  • the name STEPHEN HAWKING,
  • his black hole entropy equation curling around the design.
  It’s one of the rare coins where the designer casually drops advanced theoretical physics into the artwork.
• Why you won’t find it in change: The coin was never released into circulation. Every genuine Hawking 50p you see is either BU, silver proof or gold proof, sold via official channels or the secondary market. Anything described as a “found in change” Hawking coin is either misidentified or someone being optimistic.
• BU vs proofs:
  • BU: Cupro-nickel, 8 g, broad frosted/bright finish, sold in packs/cards; this is the coin you’re asking about.
  • Silver proof: .925 silver, 8 g, limited to 7,000 coins.
  • Silver proof piedfort: double-thickness, 16 g, limited to 2,500 coins.
  • Gold proof: 22-carat gold, 15.5 g, maximum mintage 400.
  All share the same core design, just in increasingly shiny (and expensive) forms.
• Mintage & demand: A BU mintage of 212,209 is moderate by modern non-circulculating standards – not ultra-rare, but low enough that with Hawking’s global appeal, demand has kept values comfortably above original loose-BU pricing.
• Collecting tip: For the BU coin:
  • prioritise sealed, undamaged Royal Mint packs or clean distributor cards,
  • avoid coins with obvious spotting or heavy rub in the central spiral,
  • store packs flat, away from sunlight, to avoid warping and fading.
  Many collectors build the whole Innovation in Science run in matching BU packaging, with Hawking at slot #1.

Overall, the Celebrating the Life of Stephen Hawking 2019 UK 50p Brilliant Uncirculated Coin is a perfect interdisciplinary nerd object: part physics lecture, part tribute, part gateway into a whole science-themed 50p collection.