The Royal Mint reveals its celebratory coronation range in gold and silver ahead of the Coronation on 6 May

With the coronation of King Charles III less than a month away, it was clear that the Royal Mint wasn’t going to let an event so rare and important pass without numismatic commemoration. Today sees the unveiling of the designs that the mint will offer for sale starting on the 24th of April. We only have a few beauty shots of the silver variants, but the specs of the rest of the range are here for perusal.

The heptagonal 50p coin is a simple, but very effective design, combining part of the façade of Westminster Abbey, where the coronation will take place, indeed, where it has taken place since William the Bastard (who became the ‘Conqueror’ after a bit of PR) was crowned in 1066, with the new king’s cypher. Natasha Jenkins has done a good job capturing the history of the coronation, especially given the limitations of designing for a circulating coin.

The £5 coin is designed by Timothy Noad, and depicts a cropped view of the crown that will be used on the day, one that many will recognise from the display in the Tower of London. Again, it’s well targeted toward the coronation, and very much in the formal style that marks out the mints many royal-themed issues.

The big change with these coins, however, is on the obverse, where the designer of the new King Charles III effigy, Martin Jennings, has produced a altered one, with the monarch wearing the lost Tudor Crown. It’s a good alternative to the usual uncrowned effigy, and its relative rarity will no doubt enhance its appeal to collectors, although that will obviously depend on how much future use it gets. We’ll have more on this range later, including a further design by John Bergdahl.

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The commemorative coronation coin range features a crowned effigy of His Majesty The King designed by artist and sculptor Martin Jennings – the first crowned effigy of His Majesty to feature on a coin. The effigy of King Charles III for non-commemorative coins was unveiled following His Majesty’s Accession late last year and in line with tradition, The King is shown not wearing regalia.

The new, crowned coin effigy has been created specifically for the Coronation, ahead of the historic event on May 6th and will feature on the commemorative range produced by The Royal Mint to mark the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The crowned effigy is reserved specifically for collectable, commemorative coins and will be reserved for very special collections moving forwards.

The portrait features the Tudor Crown, which was personally selected by His Majesty The King for the portrait. Although the Tudor crown was destroyed in the 1640s, it is still used heraldically and has been used on previous crowned portraits of Kings from the 20th century. The Tudor Crown also features on His Majesty’s cypher. Martin Jennings comments: “Following my work on the uncrowned coin effigy of His Majesty, I am delighted to have had the opportunity to work on a crowned version for the coronation range. Each detail of the crown has to be scrupulously correct, so it has taken considerable work to get it right. I’m proud to have had the opportunity to realise a design that is both dignified and celebratory for this historic occasion.”

Natasha Jenkins, Product Designer at The Royal Mint, comments: “I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to work on this project. I was inspired to feature Westminster Abbey as it plays such an iconic role in the coronation, so I chose to opt for a stylised line drawing of Westminster Abbey that is instantly recognisable with Britain, along with King Charles’ cypher and crown to mark him being crowned as King.

“I am always aware of finishing touches during the design stage. This is why I chose a linear design, as I knew the negative areas of the design would be polished, and the relief areas would be frosted. This will give the coin a lot of opportunity for light play.”

“In the future, I will be able to look back and show my children this coin that I designed for the Coronation and feel proud.”

Five million 50ps are set to enter circulation later in 2023 featuring the original, uncrowned effigy of King Charles by Martin Jennings. This follows the five million memorial 50ps that have already entered circulation – the first circulating coinage of the new monarch, that will co-circulate along with that of Queen Elizabeth II. The Coronation range also includes a £5 coin features the crowned coinage portrait of His Majesty on the obverse and a beautiful design by Timothy Noad on the reverse, featuring the Tudor Crown.

The range also features a number of ounce coins, that are available in several editions and sizes, each featuring the crowned coinage portrait of His Majesty on the obverse and a beautiful design by John Bergdahl on the reverse.