Royal Mint bows out of the Queens Beasts series with three collections, including a lower-priced quarter-ounce silver set

Launching on Monday, the Royal Mint have rounded out their hugely popular and quite beautiful Jody Clark-penned ‘Queen’s Beasts’ series with a trio of ten coin collections. With the Royal Mint on a seemingly unstoppable roll of hits at the moment, it comes as no surprise that all three sets sold out in exceptionally short order, so if you want one, be prepared to pay over the odds on the aftermarket. Apologies for the lack of our usual heads up. The press release only came in 20 minutes before sales started and we didn’t see it until a couple of hours later, by which time it had sold out and thus dropped back on the priority list.

However, here it is, and it is a beautiful set. Sold as ten-coin collections, a couple of the formats are unique to the proof ranges. The quarter-ounce silver is all new, and sporting a reverse-frosted finish. The quarter ounce gold has been available before, but not in that same reverse-frosted finish the silver has. Also new, surprisingly, is the two-ounce proof silver set. This weight is the staple of the bullion range, but the proof coins started at one-ounce, and then jumped to five-ounces.

A really fine release, and one that was clearly extremely popular indeed. It’s actually one of the few times we wished the mintages were a bit higher. The only downside is an absence of the ‘Completer’ coin, which is a shame, but not a major point. As we said, already sold out, so expect to pay a premium for any of these sets if you want one.