So that's what the new decimal UK coins are going to be like....

[hertfordian]

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 “ONEâ€

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...

[Chris Perkins]

They don't sound that radical do they! I expect they'll probably give them a modern twist and make them look like cartoons or something.

[hertfordian]

They don't sound that radical do they! I expect they'll probably give them a modern twist and make them look like cartoons or something.

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?!?!?

[hertfordian]

Not that I'm bored today (it being a Sunday and all!) but I've had a go at trying to visualise what the new coins may look like. based on the information in the proclamation. I've also tried to get them roughly the size that the actual coins would be to see if they work as coin designs or if they're too small.

Thought please!

[Chris Perkins]

Excellent designs! Can you also copy actual coins and end up with high res tiff files that look like that? That kind of thing might be something useful for my books when no actual photograph can be obtained (e.g. for my Irish coin book).

I have a feeling the designs will be stylised and will take up the whole space, rather like the the current Act of Union £2 coin.

[hertfordian]

Excellent designs! Can you also copy actual coins and end up with high res tiff files that look like that? That kind of thing might be something useful for my books when no actual photograph can be obtained (e.g. for my Irish coin book).

I have a feeling the designs will be stylised and will take up the whole space, rather like the the current Act of Union £2 coin.

Hi Chris

Not sure - I've never tried. I have got a flatbed scanner so I suppose in theory it *may* be possible to do something with them but I'd have to give it a go.

I must admit having looked at these "finished" designs, I would hope that they are going to do something a bit more stylised as otherwise these will be very boring. Also, perhaps they could end up doing different "styles" of the various arms on different denominations (e.g. compare Half-crowns of George V, George VI and EIIR)....

[Red Riley]

The London Gazette is usually pretty authoratitive but in this case I hope it has got it completely wrong as the words 'dull as ditchwater' spring to mind. What does surprise me and throws a little doubt into my mind is that over the last 50 years or more, there has been a tendency to bring the Welsh national emblems (dragon, leek) into the coinage but from the descriptions given, there is no sign of them here. I can see riots all the way from Llantwit Major to Llanddewi Brefi!

Incidentally, great visualisation Hertfordian.

[Chris Perkins]

Maybe the Welsh will adopt the Euro!

[Geordie582]

Oh! Dear! As an avid anti-euroist, I'm very afraid this will change me to "Let's join the Euro ----PLEASE" I'm now regretting collecting all the decimal series British coins. Ah! Well! Back to my beloved hammered.

[Chris Perkins]

I don't think even the over commercialist Royal Mint with their many obscure and needless commemorative issues could match the bland meaningless Euro coinage!

[augsburger]

I'm going to be very sceptical about these, i put in some designs for the coins and i did a sort of parody of old coins and didn't get past the second round, though i didn't expect to because the designs were supposed to represent the new britian, and those simply do not. We already have roaylist symbols, i can't see them putting stuff through that isn't new and different.

Besides i am expecting designs that are much worse than those, even if they are a little repetative. A chav on the 1p, a can of beer on the 2p, britannian getting beaten up on the 50p. Oww, i'm having a negative day today.

[hertfordian]

I'm going to be very sceptical about these, i put in some designs for the coins and i did a sort of parody of old coins and didn't get past the second round, though i didn't expect to because the designs were supposed to represent the new britian, and those simply do not. We already have roaylist symbols, i can't see them putting stuff through that isn't new and different.

Besides i am expecting designs that are much worse than those, even if they are a little repetative. A chav on the 1p, a can of beer on the 2p, britannian getting beaten up on the 50p. Oww, i'm having a negative day today.

Whilst I really hope you're right- then what are the designs for as outlined in the royal proclamation? Are they for some sort of 1 year type design (a la Australian Mint and their silver year sets which they churn out with 1 year designs) to help Gordon Brown pretend that we're all BRITISH instead of being English, Scottish etc (though from the designs as they're described, obviously not Welsh!). Either that, or otherwise, are we to expect an imminent announcement that we'll be reconsidering our decision not to join up to the Euro and therefore, these designs will only be around for a couple of years at most?!

[augsburger]

I have no idea, but it shouldn't be that hard for someone to take a proclamation and change it, send it to the paper as a joke, you would have thought. Also, why has nothing come out about this anywhere else. I know the royal mint is not the fasted of bodies but westminster collection seems to be much faster in publicising what the mint do, and they have nothing. The Daily mail on line claims the designs will be declared in april, the royal mint said end of spring, which i make may june time.

[hertfordian]

I have no idea, but it shouldn't be that hard for someone to take a proclamation and change it, send it to the paper as a joke, you would have thought. Also, why has nothing come out about this anywhere else. I know the royal mint is not the fasted of bodies but westminster collection seems to be much faster in publicising what the mint do, and they have nothing. The Daily mail on line claims the designs will be declared in april, the royal mint said end of spring, which i make may june time.

Fair point but this was taken directly from the London Gazette website so unless they've been "infiltrated", I think it's just the Mint being secretive or slow!

[augsburger]

SO the design of the new coins are out, and they were are described, but who would have thought they would look like this???

Looks kind of like a kiddies jigsaw puzzle. Hmm!!!!!

I don't think the coins will work too well on their own, but i suppose they are something different that has never really been tried before, as far as i know, but will they be popular? I can't see it, and i can see the whole britannia issue flaring up in the daily mail tomorrow.

[scottishmoney]

Well...

[coin watch]

I suppose if you ever get bored you could play with your loose change and see if you can make that puzzle.

Look on the bright side, at least the coinage still has a british theme, soon the mint will put a pin in a map of the world and then make some designs in the hope of keeping the majorities happy!!!!

[TomGoodheart]

To me it's a quaint idea, but they seem more like commemeratives than 'proper' coins. The 'flaw' in my eyes is that the designs don't really stand out individually. Particularly the 5p and 1p. Even the 10p is irritating in that we've lost a leopard. I'd say the Scots have definitely got the best deal with the 2p.

I think there will be a flurry of people in the pub trying to see how the designs all join together then everyone will get bored.

In fact, since I understand they will be released as required it will be some time before all designs are available. Until then people will no doubt limit themselves to admiring comments such as 'wtf???' and 'scuse me but you've given me some foreign **** in my change dear!'

* 'wtf' meaning of course, 'what these for?'

Edited April 2, 2008 by TomGoodheart

[TomGoodheart]

Oh, and just out of interest. Am I correct in thinking that this is the first time our milled coinage has not featured a crown in the design of at least one denomination?

[scottishmoney]

I'd say the Scots have definitely got the best deal with the 2p.

My way of looking at it, my Irish and Scottish brethren got the short end of the stick as usual with the low denomination coins.

[HistoricCoinage]

Oh, and just out of interest. Am I correct in thinking that this is the first time our milled coinage has not featured a crown in the design of at least one denomination?

The crown wasn't featured on the reverse of Elizabeth I's Milled Coinage.

[TomGoodheart]

Oh, and just out of interest. Am I correct in thinking that this is the first time our milled coinage has not featured a crown in the design of at least one denomination?

The crown wasn't featured on the reverse of Elizabeth I's Milled Coinage.

Oh, OKay! I did mean since the reign of Charles II, but of course I forgot Lizzie and her little issue! Thanks for that HC!

[augsburger]

So what do you think then? The coins are still royal in nature, but kind of go against the traditions, no crowns no britannia. Do you actually care they have changed?

[Red Riley]

So what do you think then? The coins are still royal in nature, but kind of go against the traditions, no crowns no britannia. Do you actually care they have changed?

The cutting up of the coat of arms strikes me as being little more than a gimmick and, one which (if it lasts as long as the last set) we will be heartily sick of in 37 years time. The only good thing I can say is that it's not quite as bad as the Euro - but it is a close run thing.

[Geoff T]

So what do you think then? The coins are still royal in nature, but kind of go against the traditions, no crowns no britannia. Do you actually care they have changed?

The cutting up of the coat of arms strikes me as being little more than a gimmick and, one which (if it lasts as long as the last set) we will be heartily sick of in 37 years time. The only good thing I can say is that it's not quite as bad as the Euro - but it is a close run thing.

They're everything I feared they would be - an opportunity to produce something genuinely modern and exciting wasted on a weak compromise that's trying to look both ways at once. It's the 2005 sovereign all over again, except that this time they're not mere one-offs and they're intended for our pockets. I'm seriously underwhelmed.

Geoff