With Queen Elizabeth having two birthdays, an actual one and an official one, it gives the mints two bites of the cherry to release commemorative coins, although it's usually only the Royal Mint that marks the official one. To do so this year, they're producing 500 brilliant-uncirculated gold Sovereigns, each struck on June 11th and with [...]
For the third year in sucession the Royal Mint is launching a £100 face-value coin, this time depicting a view of Trafalgar Square, with Nelsons Column and one of the sculptor Edwin Lanseer's superb bronze lions. It isn't a new piece of artwork, rather a reworking of one of the four designs in 2014's Portrait of [...]
First introduced on 09 February 1983, the British £1 (one pound) coin took over from the banknote that had previously carried that denomination, and since then well over 1.5 billion of them have been produced, production finally ceasing in December 2015. The reason for the end in production is quite simple - counterfeiting. It's estimated that [...]
The Royal Mints latest £20 f0r £20 face value coin has now been launched, and predictably it celebrates the upcoming 90th birthday of Britains Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II. If Helen of Troy had 'the face that launched a thousand ships', Queen Elizabeth must have 'the face that adorned a billion coins'. A popular monarch, [...]
The Royal Mint always release a good selection of anniversary commemoratives every year. With a history as long and rich as Britain's, the mint is spoilt for choice on subject matter and the 2016 range is a good case in point. Subjects as wide-ranging as the 950th Anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, the 350th Anniversary [...]
It isn't often that the British Royal Mint releases new bullion coins, heavily relying on the venerable Britannia range for many years, but three years ago we were treated to the ‘Shēngxiào Collection’ of Lunar coins. Even though the designs split opinion somewhat - we like them a lot - the lunar range has [...]
We're not going to pretend we're unbiased, Jody Clark's 2014 proof Britannia was for us, the outstanding coin release of last year by a large margin, some feat given the quality of the competition, and one we shouted about from the first day. With examples, especially the superb high-relief 5oz version, selling for multiples [...]
A new pair of coins issued for Alderney have been released by the Royal Mint that commemorate the 600th anniversary of one of the most amazing victories in the history of warfare, the Battle of Agincourt. Wracked by disease and fatigue, heavily outnumbered by an armoured foe, Henry V led an English army in battle against a superior foe [...]
A few weeks ago the Royal mint launched the third set of proof coins in the ongoing Shēngxiào Lunar series that debuted with the Horse and followed with a very nice and unusual Sheep coin last year. As before, the mint also releases a pair of one ounce bullion versions, one in silver and one in gold. Obviously not [...]
Another of the big lunar ranges has debuted and this time it's the Shēngxiào lunar from the Royal Mint. The third in the twelve-coin series, this follows the Lunar Horse from 2014, and the Lunar Sheep from last year. All of the coins are designed by a British Chinese artist working in London with a passion [...]
