British Coins 20 Pence 1982 Queen Elizabeth II
The British decimal twenty pence (20p) coin – often pronounced twenty pee – is a unit of currency equaling twenty one-hundredths of a pound sterling. Like the 50 pence coin it is an equilateral curve heptagon.
Obverse: Second crowned portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II facing right, wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, inscription ELIZABETH II above D. G. REG. F. D. below. (As with all new decimal currency, until 1984 the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin appeared on the obverse, in which the Queen wears the 'Girls of Great Britain and Ireland' Tiara.)
Designed by Arnold Machin RA, it had in fact been approved by The Queen as early as June 1964. Like Mary Gillick, Machin avoided the couped portrait - cut off by the neck - which had been usual on coins earlier in the century. The wreath, however, was replaced with the tiara which The Queen had been given as a wedding present from her grandmother, Queen Mary. A modified version of Machin’s portrait has appeared on definitive British postage stamps since 1967 – and as a result it is possibly the most reproduced image in history.
Reverse: The original reverse of the coin, designed by William Gardner, and used from 1982 to 2008, is a Crowned Tudor Rose, with the numeral "20" below the rose, and TWENTY PENCE above the rose. The border is raised and the border inscriptions are incuse.
Issued from 1982 to 1984.
Diameter: 21,40 mm.
Weight: 5 gr.
Thickness: 1,70 mm.
Edge: Plain.
Metal: Cupronickel.
Mint: London.
Mintage:
Circulation - 740.815.000.
Mint sets - 205.000.
Proof - 106.800 (Proofs: silver piedfort in 1982).