Next £100 for £100 coin from the Royal Mint features London landmark Buckingham Palace

The second of the Royal Mints £100 for £100 silver coins has launched and like the first coin depicts a major London landmark, this time the building most associated with the British royal family, Buckingham Palace. It isn’t just the subject matter that follows on from what’s gone before, the design taking that same publics-eye view of the monument, a very refreshing change. It’s also struck in what we can only describe as a kind of semi-liquid style, with details flowing from one to the other instead of being hard-edged and micro managed as is often the case with architecturally themed coins.

At two-ounces of fine silver in weight, it’s quite a bit larger than the regular £20 coin as you’d expect, but sadly that hasn’t manifested itself as a greatly increased diameter, the extra weight, as before, going to thickness. We’d still like to see the diameter increase from 40mm to 50mm to better show off the design, especially after so much effort has been made keeping the reverse-side artwork so free of superfluous inscriptions, all of which have been put on the obverse where they belong. We guess the fact the coin is technically much closer to be being practical legal tender than most commemorative coins is probably behind the decision to keep the size limited.

Packaging is informative and well done, although not up to regular commemorative coin releases from the Royal Mint, again, only to be expected, and overall we like this one almost as much as the first coin. Available to order from the Royal Mint website for, you guessed it, £100.

MINTS DESCRIPTION

The Royal Mint is to issue its second limited edition £100 for £100 commemorative coin – available at the face value price of £100 – which will depict Britain’s best-known royal building, Buckingham Palace. Only 50,000 of the new legal tender £100 coins are to be minted, and each will contain two full ounces of 999 fine silver.

As the familiar face of this architectural icon goes under wraps for an expansive refurbishment, its current image is permanently captured on this new £100 coin. It follows on from the sell-out success within days of the first £100 coin featuring ‘Big Ben’ in December 2014, and the popularity of the £20 face value coin series (the first was struck in honour of the birth of Prince George of Cambridge). It is expected that the Buckingham Palace £100 will receive an equally warm welcome.

In a year that has seen the second birthday of Prince George of Cambridge and the birth of Princess Charlotte, The Queen’s second great-grandchild, the new £100 coin captures the timeless elegance of the building that is both a family home to Britain’s Royals, and a working building, housing the offices of the staff who support the day to day activities of the Royal Family.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE

George III bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife, Queen Charlotte, and work began the following year to remodel it. Later, George IV would transform the house into a palace. Architect John Nash set about realising the king’s ambitious plans, but spiralling costs eventually cost him his job and King George never moved in.

Queen Victoria became the first sovereign to take up residence in 1837, however, when she married Prince Albert three years later, the shortcomings of her new home were highlighted. The Marble Arch was moved and nurseries and guest bedrooms were added. Work continued and the palace was finally finished just before the outbreak of The First World War in 1914.

DESIGNERS INSPIRATION

Buckingham Palace was one of the sights that inspired Royal Mint’s engravers Glyn Davies and Laura Clancy when they took on the challenge of capturing something a little different with their portraits of iconic landmarks. They were motivated to picture the wonders of Britain from the point of view of the thousands of tourists who visit, cameras in hand, to collect their own memories of Britain’s famous structures and sights.

In their portrait of Buckingham Palace, the building is seen as though from a tourist’s eye view, across The Mall past the Victoria Memorial.

SPECIFICATION

DENOMINATION COMPOSITION WEIGHT DIAMETER FINISH MINTAGE BOX / COA
£100 UKP 0.999 SILVER 62.86 g 40.00 mm B/UNC 50,000 CARD / YES

Featured image at top based on photo by Image by VIVIANE MONCONDUIT  from Pixabay