UPDATED: The Royal Mint continues its ‘Myths & Legends’ bullion range with the second Robin Hood coin – Maid Marian

Ostensibly the replacement for the Queen’s Beasts series, the Royal Mint’s ‘Myths and Legends’ program will also tape into the rich tapestry of British history to produce something they hope coin collectors and stackers will desire to own. The first coin tapped into the mythos around Robin Hood, and rather than just dabble with that legend and move on to something else, the mint has wisely chosen to go deeper.

We knew when Robin Hood was released that the next two issues would likely be Maid Marian and Little John, and the official launch today of Maid Marian means that path looks to be a correct one. We did have some minor concerns about how they would depict her given her less adventurous role in the tales, but we’re pleased to say we needn’t have worried.

We think this is a beautiful bullion coin, depicting the heroine in the forest, armed with a bow and quiver of arrows. The layered look of her surroundings and the way they overlap and subsume the border is terrific. It’s packed with tons of detail and nice touches, more than you would expect from a bullion coin from a national mint, but no less than you’d expect from the talented Jody Clark. We actually prefer it to the Robin Hood design and weren’t expecting to say that.

As before, we’re looking at two one-ounce coins, on in three-nines silver and one in four-nines gold. We’d hoped to have seen the ten-ounce silver and the one-ounce platinum variants hinted at by now, and as these have yet to be confirmed we’ll have to consider them possibles rather than definites. Whatever the case, this is a first class issue for us and is available now.

UPDATED: Added video

MAID MARIAN

Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend, but was the subject of at least two plays by 1600. Her history and circumstances are obscure, but she commanded high respect in Robin’s circle for her courage and independence as well as her beauty and loyalty. For this reason, she is celebrated by feminist commentators as one of the early strong female characters in English literature.