Able to make a case for itself as being the single most iconic image in numismatics, Benedetto Pistrucci’s St George and the Dragon has adorned the British Sovereign bullion coin for the two centuries it’s been issued on and off. Several other producers have also utilised it in homages to the original, and the Royal Mint itself has played with several new designs used for one-off years over the last couple of decades.

For today’s new release, things are a bit more serious. Employing the considerable talents of designer Jody Clark (the man responsible for the last British effigy of Queen Elizabeth II), we have an all-new interpretation of the classic legend. It’s a more contemporary take, highly dynamic, and layered. All the usual elements are there, but it’s clearly different in artistic style.

As a Royal Mint bullion coin, it has the guilloche patterned background field to make counterfeiting more difficult to achieve, and that also carries around to the obverse, surrounding the Martin Jennings effigy of King Charles III. The reverse face has that micro-engraved border carrying a repeating sequence of coin composition inscriptions. A fine looking coin.

The range is also completely different to the classic Sovereign. There are a pair of silver coins, the obvious one-ounce, and an impressive one-kilo, and a pair of gold (one ounce, and a quarter ounce). Other than something like a five-ounce, or ten-ounce silver version being missing, we think it’s a well-chosen selection. It should go live later today.