hertfordian

I think it's the fact that they're saying that there will be different quarters grouped together on different coins that's really making my mind boggle - not only does it *sound* like these will look rather strange (e.g. a harp balanced on top of three lions anyone?) but also, how on earth will it work when one's working on a canvas no larger than 25mm or so maximum?!?!?

Just been browsing on the London Gazette website http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/ and did a search for "coin". If you look at the search results you'll see that amongst the list is a proclamation dated 15th Feb 2008. If you look at this and then do some reading through the accompanying PDF you'll see descriptions (albeit vague) of the new decimal coins. It looks like the designs will be as follows: £1 The design of the said one pound coins shall be as follows: ‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G REG · F · D · †and the date of the year, and for the reverse a Shield of Our Royal Arms with the words “ONE†to the left and “POUND†to the right. The coins shall have a graining upon the edge and in incuse letters the inscription “DECUS ET TUTAMENâ€.’ 50p The design of the said fifty pence coins shall be as follows: ‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G REG · F · D ·†and the date of the year, and for the reverse a section of Our Royal Arms showing elements of the third and fourth quarterings accompanied by the words “FIFTY PENCEâ€. The coins shall have a plain edge.’ 20p The design of the said twenty pence coins shall be as follows: ‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G · REG · F · D ·†and the date of the year, and for the reverse a section of Our Royal Arms showing elements of the second and fourth quarterings accompanied by the words “TWENTY PENCEâ€. The coin shall have a plain edge.’ 10p The design of the said ten pence coins shall be as follows: ‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G REG · F · D ·†and the date of the year, and for the reverse a section of Our Royal Arms showing elements of the first quartering accompanied by the words “TEN PENCEâ€. The coin shall have a graining upon the edge.’ 5p The design of the said five pence coins shall be as follows: ‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G REG · F · D ·†and the date of the year, and for the reverse a section of Our Royal Arms showing elements of all four quarterings accompanied by the words “FIVE PENCEâ€. The coin shall have a graining upon the edge.’ 2p The design of the said two pence coins shall be as follows: ‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G REG · F · D ·†and the date of the year, and for the reverse a section of Our Royal Arms showing elements of the second quartering accompanied by the words “TWO PENCEâ€. The coin shall have a plain edge.’ 1p The design of the said one penny coins shall be as follows: ‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G REG · F · D ·†and the date of the year, and for the reverse a section of Our Royal Arms showing elements of the first and third quarterings accompanied by the words “ONE PENNYâ€. The coin shall have a plain edge.’ I'm afraid from reading the above, my first thought is "oh dear..." - sounds a bit boring to me if these are all going to be basically taken from the one design - of course, the actual designs may be much more interesting but so far, these sound like ALL of the coins will be a mixture of the old EIIR shilling coins and the old Jersey circulating coins (pre-landmarks of the island). Not very inspiring at all. Guess it's a case of watch this space...

What's everyone's views on the 2008 Standard Catalog of World Coins 3 DVD Set? I've seen this and have been toying with getting it but have seen a few reviews which have been slightly less than complimentary, and so am wondering if it would be worth spending nearly £50 on it. I appreciate that the new issues section is going to be limited in terms of how up-to-date it can be but I'm more interested in the older material to be honest. Any views/feedback would be much appreciated! :-) Thanks in advance Ian

First sight of the new commemorative coins for 2008- still nothing re: the new decimal circulating coins.... http://www.westminstercollection.com/produ...77-2687A5EA0A7E Can't say the designs look particularly impressive - the Elizabeth one certainly looks like it's been used before on the Cayman Islands and elsewhere... The Charles coin looks like one of the Scandinavian monarchs and the 2 pound coin looks particularly uninspiring. Let's hope 2012 gives us some better designs than this!

I've not been able to get the links to work again but if you do a search on the gazettes-online.co.uk website, the relevant announcements are here: Date: 26 July 2007 Issue Number: 58403 Page number: 10801 Publication Date: Thursday, 26 July 2007 Notice Code: 1101 Hope this helps...

I think the gazettes-online website is down at the moment :-(

Having been googling for details of the new UK decimal coin designs for next year, I stumbled across these two proclamations. Has anyone else seen these and any idea as to whether these coins will be issued dated 2007 or will they be dated 2008 thereby enabling the Royal Mint to get on that cash-cow bandwagon, as beloved by the Royal Canadian and Australian Mints...? Here are the links: Link 1 Link 2 If anyone DOES have news of the new UK designs for 2008, please let us know! (Doesn't anyone from the Royal Mint collect coins and look at this board and could therefore sneak us a preview?!) ;-)) Cheers Hertfordian

The main area where I think there would be problems would be with the Scottish counties as they've now all been made into unitary authorities (as far as I can see) and therefore all of the historical names/coats of arms etc. are very out of date... Moreover, this would cause more confusion in terms of how many coins to actually issue - where to draw the line etc- similarly the point re: Ireland (do you count Ulster and Eire or just Ulster) - someone would have to make a decision re: what's the cut-off point timeline-wise. What about London - would each borough (32 in total?) want their own one?! Could be a VERY large programme more in line with some of the offerings from the Royal Canadian Mint! ;-) Cheers Hertfordian

Funnily enough, I did have a similar thought a couple of years ago. I tried coming up with some mock designs using coats of arms of the counties. Some worked - some didn't. Have a look here and see a later revision of the designs and see what you think... http://members.lycos.co.uk/hertfordian/ Cheers Hertfordian