1994 Gold 2 Pound Coin - Bank of England 300th Anniversary & Mule

The 1994 gold proof two pounds piece was issued by the Royal Mint to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Bank of England.

Designed by Leslie Durbin, the reverse shows the Bank's original Corporate Seal, with Crown and Cyphers of King William III and Queen Mary II.

Queen Elizabeth II's third portrait can be seen on the obverse of the coin, designed by Raphael Maklouf. However, the 'Mule' variety features a slightly different obverse design compared to the rest of the issue.

The Royal Mint unintentionally struck a number of pieces using the die for double sovereigns. The main difference between the two dies being the double sovereign die does not include the denomination 'Two Pounds' (You can see on the picture of the obverse the words 'Two Pounds' are not present).

In 1994, the Royal Mint wrote to retail customers explaining the error, inviting them to return any error coins for replacement with an example featuring the correct design. It is not known how many people did this, or how many error examples were produced.



The overall mintage for the 1994 gold proof two pounds is 1,000. Mintage estimates for the Mule variety alone vary from 50 pieces to 300 pieces. Either way, the error example is very rare!

The two pounds piece is made of solid 22 carat gold (Gold Fineness of 0.916), and weighs 15.98 grams. It has a diameter of 28.40mm.

The coin would have been housed in its original Royal Mint acrylic screw top capsule, presented in its Royal Mint green leatherette case, accompanied with an individually numbered certificate of authenticity.