Well the Royal Mint seem to be going all out this year. In Spring 2008 the new designs for 1p-£1 coins will be unvield however not stopping there, they have revealed the new commemoratives for next year. Only one general circulating one (£2 coin celebrating the London Centenary of the Olympic Games) & two £5 coins (one for the 450th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth I & one for Charles' 60th Birthday which has a profile that would suit well on normal circulating coins once Elizabeth II leaves the throne):

£2 Olympic Centenary


£5 450th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth I


£5 Prince Charles' 60th


What do we think of them then, a bit plain for the £2 compared to the excellent English/Scottish union one this year but I like the Elizabeth I one. I also liek the Charles one which is a bit plain but gives us an early look as to what coins with his portrait would look like (although I imagine he would be pointing the opposite way when he's King William V, he won't be caled Charles when he's eventually King)

My favourite is the one portraying Elizabeth and I agree with you on the other two. I find that the Prince Charles £5 is very plain but it does give us an insight as you say.

Many thanks for sharing!

Thank you for posting those images. Well, the "Olympic Centenary" theme is a little far fetched in my opinion - but maybe they did not want to put FOUR MORE YEARS UNTIL THE LONDON OLYMPICS on the coin. The design I find interesting, and while I also like the font used on that side, I prefer matching fonts for both obverse and reverse. Charles - hmm, a good portrait, I think, but the combination of the two effigies makes the coin a little too sober. My favorite is the Elizabeth I design ... too bad that it is on a coin that is unlikely to actually circulate. But I will get that one for my collection.

(Edit: Seems those can already be ordered from the mint's web site. Hmmmm ...)

Christian

I have to have the QE coin, she is one of my top 5 favourite British monarchs. As for the Charles coin, it is a masterly and flatteringly, albeit, and however unrealistic portraiture of said individual. He was notably more realistically portrayed on the Charles and Diana Crown etc, where he looks like his regular attractiveness challenged self. VIVAT REGINA - LONG LIVE THE QUEEN! Save us from having his portrait on our money, yes, I get QEII coins in change daily.

Why do we have a coin celebrating the 450th year since the accession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne????

Other than that, the others look fine, I especially like the Olympic Commemorative coin but where are all the other coins??

I wanna see!

Or the 60th birthday of PrinceCharles? He is not even monarch yet, and hopefully won't be until somewhere around his 80th birthday anyway. At least they did not make a Chucky and Cammie commem.

Hey at least he's still alive and from the same era
I quite like the guy, he's like the harry Enfield character Tim 'Nice-but-dim'...

I like them, and I like Charles as well he did something that no other Prince of Wales has done and that was learn to speak welsh

But does he spake Cornish? He is after all the Duke of Cornwall, and the landlord over the whole Duchy.

I be not knowing...

I highly doubt he does as only a few hundred speak it fluently.

Dha weles,

Clive.