More on British £5 coins

You may remember that a few weeks ago I posted about a colleague asking me about the value of her inherited £5 coins. Well, today while we were quiet and I was counting the till with another colleague, were counting the till at work, I got talking about the Olympic 50p and Victoria cross commemorative coins in the till then the Brunel £2 coin, about how I find it exciting to find these coins, though not that rare!
I don't know if she was humouring me! But she seemed to be interested - I don't think she had ever really paid attention to the coins in her hand. Next thing she asked me was "I wonder why there aren't £5 coins when there are £2 coins and no £2 notes". Good point I thought - why don't the royal mint issue circulation £5 coins these days?

What really surprised me was that she was actually shocked that there even existed £5 coins! This is not a stupid girl by any means. I have promised to bring some from my collection in to prove to her that they exist! Some of them really are works of art I think like this Henry VIII example. That's why I would recommend them as a great and reasonably affordable way for the amateur coin collector to progress from the coins they find in general circulation but still stay well within their comfort zone! Both Ebay and the Royal Mint website are great for buying these coins in mint condition and as far as I know (I stand to be corrected!) are not subject to counterfeiting on a great scale.