Royal Mint Coins
The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, the coins of the United Kingdom. The Royal Mint originated over 1100 years ago, producing coins for England and eventually Great Britain. Since 2010 it has operated as Royal Mint Ltd, a company owned by HM Treasury, under an exclusive contract to supply all coinage for the UK. Celebrate The Royal Mint’s successful Decimal Day with a new 50p commemorative coin that brings the old to mind, carefully selected pre-decimal coins, and sets that bring a sense of nostalgia to the occasion 2021 Annual Coin. 1 day ago LONDON, Feb. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - The Royal Mint has announced they have acquired a rare, 500-year-old, gold Sovereign and the coin will be put up for auction next month. The German artist Katrin Korfmann, who lives in Amsterdam, is the designer of the Beemster 5 Euro Coin. She also signed for the Schokland 5 Euro Coin, published in 2018. In the designs of both coins. Coins with mismatched sides like these are known in the collecting world as ‘mules’ and are highly coveted, but The Royal Mint confirmed in a statement that no more than 250,000 coins made it into circulation.
The Royal Mint has unveiled designs for five commemorative coins for 2021, to be issued in various forms throughout the year. The designs are currently available only as part of annual sets, but will be available later in 2021 in different individual options; some may be issued for circulation.
The Royal Mint will likely also release additional 2021 coins with other themes.
Two 50-penny coins are being issued in 2021, to mark the 50th anniversary of decimalization, and to honor the legacy of John Logie Baird, the Scottish inventor and engineer who developed television technology.
In addition, the Royal Mint announced £2 coins remembering H.G. Wells (see related story, page 8) and honoring Sir Walter Scott.
The final commemorative coin announced for 2021 is a £5 piece marking the 95th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II.
Decimal design
Decimalization in 1971, after one of the largest and most intensive public awareness campaigns ever staged by the government, introduced the coins that UK residents know today.
According to Clare Maclennan, divisional director of the consumer division at the Royal Mint, “Decimalisation was the birth of modern coin collecting [in the United Kingdom] and it is fitting that the anniversary has been celebrated on a 50 pence — which is Britain’s most loved coin.”
The Decimal Day 50-penny coin features the second effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on its obverse, a portrait created by Arnold Machin for decimalization, to mark the transition and help people identify the new coinage.
The 2021 reverse was created by Royal Mint employee Dominique Evans. It shows overlapping design elements borrowed from the coins that preceded the switch, and of the designs that replaced the earlier coins.
This coin with the Machin effigy is available only in the sets, the Royal Mint said, suggesting that another version, likely with the current (Jody Clark) effigy, will be used for other coins to be issued later for the same anniversary.
Television pioneer
The other commemorative 50-penny coin marks the 75th anniversary of the death of John Logie Baird, a prolific inventor famous for his early prototypes of television.
The coin design features a television tower at the center, with the dual year dates of his birth and death below (1888 and 1946). Emanating from the tower are signals, with multiple legends including 1926 DEMONSTRATES ANALOGUE TELEVISION.
Artist Osborne Ross created this design.
The Scottish bard
The Royal Mint Coins
One of the most influential Scots in history, Sir Walter Scott is renowned for his literary contributions, with a number his many novels and poems remaining classics to day. He is featured on £2 coins for 2021.
His name appears in a font possibly typical for the period of his most prolific work, the late 1770s and early 1800s. The adjectives NOVELIST POET HISTORIAN appear in three lines next to his stylized image. The legend 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH surrounds. The initials SR for designer Stephen Raw also appear.
A coin fit for a queen
Another design for 2021 is the 95th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on a £5 coin.
Her birthday is April 21, 1926, and the Royal Mint notes that Queen Elizabeth II would be “the first British monarch to reach such a grand age.”
During her reign the Royal Mint has created five different effigies of Queen Elizabeth II, and she appears on every British coin in circulation.
The monarch’s symbol appears on the £5 coin’s reverse, in a design by Timothy Noad, avoiding a coin with two portraits.
Options, specifications
British Royal Mint In Usa
All of the 2021 coins referenced here, except for the Decimalization coin, feature the Jody Clark effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse. And all of the coins are struck to the same diameters as the standard counterparts.
Six different sets featuring the commemorative designs are already offered for 2021, ranging from a base metal Brilliant Uncirculated set, to a set of gold coins with Proof finishes.
The Brilliant Uncirculated set offers base metal versions of all five special 2021 designs, plus the eight definitive or standard circulating designs. This set has an unlimited mintage and retails for £55.
Two base metal Proof sets offer 13 coins each (five 2021 special designs and eight standard designs), the only difference being the nickel-brass medalet exclusive to the respective set.
The 2021 United Kingdom Proof Coin set features a square medalet designed by Kerry Davies. In total, 7,000 sets are available, for £155 each.
The Premium Proof set features a round medalet designed by the Royal Mint design team. In total, 2,500 sets are available, for £210 each.
The Proof .925 fine silver set features silver versions of all five special designs for 2021, and of all eight definitive (standard) circulating designs. For the set’s £2 coins, the outer rings are plated with gold. In total, 550 sets were offered, at a retail price of £640 each.
Canadian Royal Mint Coins
The Proof .925 fine silver piedfort set features silver versions of all five special designs for 2021. The outer rings of the set’s £2 coins are plated with gold. In total, 300 silver piedfort sets were offered, each at a retail price of £587.50.
The Proof .9167 fine gold set features gold versions of all five special designs for 2021. In total, 95 sets were offered, each for £7,100, but they sold out quickly.
In addition to these sets, the annual definitive BU set, featuring only BU versions of the eight circulating coins, is also available. This set has an unlimited mintage, and retails for £30.
For full details, visit a dedicated page at the Royal Mint’s website, www.royalmint.com/our-coins/ranges/annual-sets/2021-annual-coin-sets/.
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The Royal Mint has today released a selection of coins that have been subjected to the rigours of the 2020 Trial of the Pyx, and offer the chance to own a piece of history. Each year The Royal Mint sends a selection of coins to the coveted ceremony at Goldsmiths’ Hall, and those now available to buy include:
- The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Victoria 2019 UK £5 Gold Proof Coin
- The Queen’s Beasts The Falcon of The Plantagenets 2019 UK Five-Ounce Gold Proof Coin
- A Celebration of Sherlock Holmes 2019 UK 50p Gold Proof Coin
One of the highlights of the 2020 Trial of the Pyx was the presence of the two-kilo and five-kilo editions of the Una and the Lion 2019 UK Gold Proof Coin.
The Trial of the Pyx is one of the oldest judicial practices in the United Kingdom. At the Trial, samples of circulating and commemorative coins produced by The Royal Mint are selected at random and weighed for accuracy. Now held at Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, the Trial was first recorded publicly in 1282, and is presided over by the Queen’s Remembrancer or their deputy, who are amongst the highest legal representatives in the country, assisted by an independent jury of members of the Goldsmiths’ Company.
During the ceremony jury members are presented with Pyx boxes (Pyx being the Latin word for chest). The coins are picked from a random selection provided by The Royal Mint and placed in copper bowls. The remainder are placed in wooden bowls and are then weighed for accuracy. The Trial is then adjourned until May to allow time for trial coins to be tested by the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office and the National Measurement Office, however due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s verdict was delivered virtually, for the first time in the ceremony’s history.
Graeme Smith, Queen’s Assay Master at The Royal Mint comments: “Every year coins produced by The Royal Mint go to the Trial of the Pyx, a ceremony which tests and confirms the quality and accuracy of each coin and is something which The Royal Mint prides itself on. The Royal Mint is the only mint in the world to undergo the rigorous independent testing that the Trial demands. I am delighted that the tested coins can now be purchased by coin collectors, this is the ultimate coin investment, allowing customers to own a true piece of British coin history that has been a part of one of the oldest judicial trials in the world.”
Whilst the Trial is steeped in ancient traditions, and attended by officers with some of the oldest job titles in the land (The Master and Deputy Master of The Royal Mint, The Queen’s Assay Master, The Queen’s Remembrancer), the Trial of the Pyx is as relevant today as it has always been, and continues to play an extremely important role, supporting The Royal Mint’s international reputation for excellence in production.
Every Trial of the Pyx coin being offered to collectors is accompanied by a collection of materials illustrating the coin’s distinct place in history. The range of coins available may carry small marks or smudges from having been handled during the Trial of the Pyx. To view the full range of exclusive coins and sets from the Trial of the Pyx visit: https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/events/trial-of-the-pyx/