The Royal Mint celebrates 150 years of the Royal Albert Hall and there’s a mint first domed coin incoming

One of the more popular tourist attractions in London, and one of the worlds premier locations for musical events, the Royal Albert Hall was built in Victorian times and named after the recently deceased husband of the Queen herself – Prince Albert. It’s now 150 years since it opened and the Royal Mint is featuring the building on a coin for the first time, as well as issuing its debut domed coin as well.

The design by Anne Desmet RA looks good. The building is depicted almost in full, and as if it were photographed with a fisheye lens from above and to the front. An unusual viewpoint which we believe may have been chosen to suit the mints first, but yet to appear, domed coin. Inscriptions on the reverse are minimal and well placed, much to the mints credit. The obverse, is, as you’d expect, just a simple effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Jody Clark, along with issue details.

There are currently three formats available to buy. Cheapest are a pair of sterling silver coins, identical except for thickness as the larger is a double-weight piedfort version (£90 & £167.50). Both carry the same edge inscription ‘INSPIRING ARTS AND SCIENCES’, said to be the reason Prince Albert wanted the venue originally. There’s also a 22kt gold coin with the same diameter, struck with a 39.94 gram total weight. This retails for a not insubstantial £2690.00 and has a mintage of 180 pieces. All versions are nicely presented in a box with a C.O.A.

Yet to put in an appearance is the domed version. We’re not sure why this hasn’t launched with the others, but it appears to be another one ounce (28.28 grams) coin with a mintage in excess of double the normal version. Expect the price to be a little higher. The domed strike doesn’t look too extreme and this may be the version to grab for that reason alone. Collectors who just want a coin as cheaply as possible can pick up a base metal variant for just £13.00 that comes presented in an info-packed blisterpack. Available now.

THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the United Kingdom’s most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity (which receives no government funding).

Since the hall’s opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world’s leading artists from many performance genres have appeared on its stage. It is the venue for the Proms concerts, which have been held there every summer since 1941. It is host to more than 390 shows in the main auditorium annually, including classical, rock and pop concerts, ballet, opera, film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment, sports, awards ceremonies, school and community events, and charity performances and banquets. A further 400 events are held each year in the non-auditorium spaces.

The hall was originally supposed to have been called the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed to the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences by Queen Victoria upon laying the Hall’s foundation stone in 1867, in memory of her husband, Prince Albert, who had died six years earlier. It forms the practical part of a memorial to the Prince Consort; the decorative part is the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from the Hall by Kensington Gore.

The Hall, a Grade I listed building, is an ellipse in plan, with its external major and minor axis of 83 and 72 meters, and its internal minor and major axis of 56 and 67 m. The great glass and wrought-iron dome roofing the Hall is 41 m high. The Hall was originally designed with a capacity for 8,000 people and has accommodated as many as 12,000 (although present-day safety restrictions mean the maximum permitted capacity is now 5,272 including standing in the Gallery. Around the outside of the building is 800–foot–long terracotta mosaic frieze, depicting “The Triumph of Arts and Sciences”, in reference to the Hall’s dedication. (WIKIPEDIA)

SPECIFICATION
DENOMINATION £5 UKP £5 UKP £5 UKP
COMPOSITION 0.925 silver 0.925 silver 0.9167 gold
WEIGHT 28.28 grams 56.56 grams 39.94 grams
DIMENSIONS 38.61 mm 38.61 mm 38.61 mm
FINISH Proof Proof Proof
MODIFICATIONS None None None
MINTAGE 1,660 1,010 180
BOX / C.O.A. Yes / Yes Yes / Yes Yes / Yes

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “ROYAL ALBERT HALL“, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0