The Royal Mint reissues the UK/US Special Relationship ‘The British Lion & American Eagle’ bullion coin range in gold and silver for 2025

Last year, the Royal Mint employed the talents of iconic ex-US Mint coin artist, John Mercanti, to design a new coin range celebrating the historic relationship between the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. Each country has its iconic animal for use in diplomacy and heraldry, and for the former, that’s the Bald Eagle, and for the latter, the Lion.

Mercanti’s design is a symbolic one, utilising busts rather than the animals in a natural setting, which is appropriate given the context. We weren’t sure there would be bullion coins last year, as we only had press details on the proof range, but they did appear a short time after. We didn’t cover them then, and as the range has just been reissued for 2025, we thought it’s an opportune moment to have a look.

The coins are almost identical in fundamental design, but there are changes for the bullion market. Chief amongst those is the use of the textured guilloche background the Royal Mint utilises on its bullion for security purposes (it makes them harder to counterfeit), which is on both faces, and the presence of a very small ring of micro-engraved inscriptions repeating the coin composition.

There are six versions in the range for 2025. Silver has half-ounce, one-ounce, and five-ounce variants, with gold getting one-tenth, one-quarter, and one-ounce coins. It is, in our view, a superb range of sizes, allowing the more casual stacker to pick up. Too many ranges these days start gold at one-ounce, which is simply too much, given the current spot price. Available to order now, a nice addition to the mint’s portfolio.