So, most of the basic coin details you can get off the link posted by ArnoV.
There's a little bit of history which isn't mentioned there. The UK switched from the old LSD (Pounds-Shillings-Pence) to the new decimal currency is 1971. Some coins were minted in advance (such as the old style 5p/10p) from 1968.
This is why they're labelled as “New Pence” - to differentiate it from the “old pence” in the previous system.
However, for the two pence, 1971 was the very first issue. Of course, because it was the first year this coin was needed for the new decimal currency, it was issued in colossal numbers. About 1.4 billion of them. In fact, it's actually the most produced two-pence coin ever. Literally, no other year was more produced than 1971.
If you're looking for value - basically two pence unless the scrap metal content happens to be higher, or you have an exceptional quality one. But even for that, you're not looking at mega-bucks.
The only “New Pence” two pence coin which has any real value is 1983. This is because in 1982, the lettering was changed to “Two Pence”. However, because of a mix-up at the Royal Mint, an undisclosed amount of coins produced in 1983 still used the old “New Pence” text instead, though most used the correct “Two pence”. Now all the 1983 new/two pence coins were never intended for general circulation (as the banks decided they had enough older coins already in stock), so they were only made for collector sets. It's possible someone opened a collector set and spent the coins, and so you could get a 1983 coin in your change, but it's pretty unlikely. And to be clear, it's got to be 1983 AND say “New Pence”.
It's a little bit like the undated 20 pence coin from 2008 which you might remember hearing about in the news. Because it's a mistake coin of undeterminable numbers, it's more interesting & collectable, and thus valuable. However, if your coin does have the 2008 date on it, well, it's worth 20p. Same principle, just different coin.
If you're reading “news” articles, they're probably doing a poor job at research OR reporting on ebay “sales”. And let's face it, we all know there's a lot of dodgy people asking obscene figures for things which do not warrant the price, and coins are no exception here. They're just people trying to scam the un-informed (or quite possibly, just straight up money laundering). Even the “Sold” items are not necessarily sold, there's a good chance the buyer just didn't pay - probably to annoy the seller.
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Billion in short scale, i.e. thousand-million.
