The Royal Mint's new 50p coins featuring the head of King Charles III are currently being minted in Wales. Workers at the Royal Mint in Pontyclun, near Llantrisant,, will produce 9.6 million copies of the coin to mark the Queen’s death at the age of 96.
In tribute to the Queen, the reverse of the 50p features the design that originally appeared on coins to commemorate her coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1953. It includes the four quarters of the Royal Arms depicted within a shield, with emblems of the home nations – a rose, a thistle, a shamrock and a leek.
The artist who designed the first coins of the King has said seeing the for the first time at Royal Mint in Pontyclun, near Llantrisant, was "astonishing". Martin Jennings worked painstakingly for a year, alongside experts at the Royal Mint, to create the portrait of Charles on the front of the new coins.
He used images taken to mark the now King’s 70th birthday in 2018 for the portrait, before choosing the typeface and layout of the inscription with designers at the official coin maker in Llantrisant, south Wales. Mr Jenning’s initials, MJ, feature in tiny letters by the King’s neck on the coin.
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He told the PA news agency he used images of previous Kings – who traditionally appear uncrowned – when designing Charles’ portrait. “I was inspired by effigies of George VI and Edward VIII from the 1930s,” Mr Jennings said.
“My mother gave me a little sack of coins which she had collected as a child and I looked at those. There were these lovely big old pennies with the king of them. I love to think of them rattling through people’s pockets before the Second World War.
“Each of those coins represents a purchase and a transfer. It makes me wonder how many stories are attached to each coin.”
Mr Jennings said he worked in “close collaboration” with experts at the Royal Mint to create Charles’ portrait on the front of the coins. He described seeing them in person at the Royal Mint site as “astonishing”, with so much work and skill distilled into a small coin that would be reproduced millions of times.
The artist officially started production of 50 pence coins, in memory of Queen Elizabeth II, at the Royal Mint’s site yesterday, Thursday Octiber28. A total of 9.6 million of the coins will be initially struck. They will begin appearing in the public’s change from December.
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