Corporate News
2nd April 2008
Royal Mint unveils new United Kingdom coins
Shield of Royal Arms to feature on first new design in 40 years
The Royal Mint today unveiled innovative new designs to feature on the reverse of seven of the United Kingdom’s coins.
Chosen through a public competition that attracted more than 4,000 entries, the coins feature different details of the Shield of the Royal Arms and when placed together, will reveal the complete shield of arms.
This is the first new design to feature on many of the coins in more than forty years, and the first time a single design has been used across a range of coins in this way. The coins are expected to enter circulation gradually from this summer, featuring alongside the current 27 billion coins currently in circulation, including the more than 800 million 50p coins featuring Britannia.
The reverse side of the £1 coin will also show the complete Shield of the Royal Arms, with the front of the coins continuing to bear the existing portrait of Her Majesty The Queen. The £2 coin will remain unchanged.
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Angela Eagle MP said:
“The response to the public competition for new coin designs was overwhelming, and my congratulations go to Matthew Dent, whose innovative designs were chosen from over 4000 entries. His designs, which interpret the traditional theme of heraldry in a contemporary way, will be seen and used by millions of people across the United Kingdom.”
Andrew Stafford, Chief Executive of the Royal Mint said:
"I am delighted with the new coins which have been beautifully designed. They are contemporary yet retain the gravitas and reference to history required for the United Kingdom’s coins."
The coins’ designer Matthew Dent, 26, is from Bangor in North Wales, and now lives and works in London as a graphic designer. He said:
"For designs of mine to appear on a medium as significant and prestigious as the United Kingdom’s coinage and to be produced and circulated in millions is a tremendous honour.
"I primarily want my new designs to intrigue, to entertain and to raise a smile. I love to think that they may be enjoyed as much by children at school as by folks in a pub."
Sir Christopher Frayling, Chair of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee on the Design of Coins, Medals, Seals and Decorations said:
“Every designer’s dream is to make an impact on people’s lives and Matthew Dent has achieved this at a very early stage of his career. These designs are certain to become classics in the history of coinage and I predict that they will have a very long shelf life.”
- ends -
Images and footage of the new reverses will be available from 10.30 am on Tuesday 2 April via www.royalmint.com /change. For all other press enquiries, please call the Royal Mint press line on 020 7255 5478.
Notes
- The new designs will enter circulation gradually throughout the year. It is normal practice for banks to order coins from the Royal Mint in line with public demand, which fluctuates over the course of the year. The current coin designs will remain in circulation as legal tender, with more than 800 million in circulation.
- An open competition to find the new designs was launched in August 2005, following a recommendation by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee on the Design of Coins, Medals, Seals and Decorations to commission a new design for United Kingdom coins.
- Each of the designs entered was examined by the Committee, chaired by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling. All new coin designs are approved by The Chancellor of the Exchequer who then seeks formal approval from the Queen.
- The Royal Arms are a symbol of the reigning monarch. A Shield of Arms was first used on English coinage in the mid fourteenth century, while the Royal Arms in its current form was introduced during the reign of Queen Victoria.
- It is usual for coin designs to be obtained by competition, generally restricted to freelance artists and Royal Mint engravers, but occasionally thrown open to the general public. The last public competition was in 1996 to obtain a design for the new £2 which was introduced in 1998.
- The reverse designs of the coins currently in circulation (with the exception of the 20p, £1 coin and £2 coin) were created by Christopher Ironside. The first decimal coins were introduced in April 1968. This is an unusually long period of time for a series of coins to remain unchanged: the last time that a set of reverses has lasted so long was in Queen Victoria’s reign, when some coins displayed the same reverse for 50 years before being redesigned in 1887.
- The £2 coin was introduced in 1998 and it was therefore felt that its reverse is not ready for a redesign.
- The front of the coins will continue to bear the existing portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS, approved for use on United Kingdom coins from 1 January 1998.
|