Not long now, April will be here soon & the Royal Mint are getting prepared, listings up for the "precious metals" collections:

http://www.royalmint.com/PackedSets/UKF8PLC.aspx

Will post pics as soon as they come up, if someone doesn't beat me to it.

BTW the picture may appear here (eventually, I have copied the web address link, which comes up as a red X at present but it may update itself in a few days time)

Anyone have any idea of when in April these are to be expected?

Supposedly late spring, I'd imagine in cirulation it will be late Spring (better pull it's finger out and turn up here in the UK ) but these sets may pop up in early April, will keep you posted

I thinks they are trying to gussy Chuck up for his coin portrait

I'm still hoping that the new designs end up being more interesting than the descriptions make them sound. Whilst bored one weekend afternoon, I tried coming up with these based on the descriptions in the London Gazette...

If I do say so myself, I hope the finished set are MUCH better than these otherwise I think it's going to be a very boring new set....

Perhaps they'll come up with some way of incusing part of the design - I'm thinking of the old Belgian coins of Boudouin (sp?) just before Albert II came to the throne - particularly the 5 Francs with their radar style design. Whilst the designs themselves were bland to say the least, that style *could* add a little bit of a modern twist to these seemingly boring sounding new designs....

Hertfordian

Actually can I make a suggestion, can whoever finds details of the coins first make a whole new post about it? I think it would be better, as people will want to get to the point of it, and discuss it. I think a new post would make it much neater.

Pretty well done "translations" of the descriptions actually! A little too static maybe, but well, that is what the text sounds like ...


On the portrait side that is a little odd, I think. (That king's name was Baudouin in French or Boudewijn in Dutch.) But the side with the country name and value looks good this way ...

Christian

If I'm the first to find them I'll do so, this original thread dates back quite a while now & I think a fanfare will be needed, from my point of view of course

See, now although they are plain I do kind of like those, add a bit of a fancy border round them & they could work.

Hopefully not long now, hopefully they'll reveal them this week.

New designs are due to be launched tomorrow 2nd April.

Robert

Good news! Hmm, I can imagine why they did not do it today.

Christian

However we might be hoping they did if they'r ebad. I have faith in the mint though

BTW Best to start this in a new thread I think once shown

Well from my original link, seems as if the Royal Shield theme is true:

Background & History

As a powerful symbol of royal authority the Royal Arms, in its various forms, has featured on the coinage of almost every monarch since the reign of Edward III (1327-77). Coins were, and still are, issued under the personal authority of the monarch and came to be regarded as vehicles for royal imagery, whether in the form of a portrait or a monarch?s personal Coat of Arms. As heraldry itself started to grow as a symbol of royal identity, it was a natural progression for it to appear on the coinage. It is not surprising then that Matthew Dent, the winning designer, chose the Royal Arms, and in particular the shield of the Royal Arms, as the theme for his innovative range of new designs, with all four quarters spread over the six coins from the 1p to the 50p. Completing the new range of coins is the ?1 coin featuring the shield of the Royal Arms in its entirety, uniting the six fragmented elements into one design.

The process of choosing the new designs to replace the familiar heraldic emblems on Britain?s circulating coins began with a public competition which generated more than 4,000 designs from over 500 people - the largest response to any public competition organised to change the British coinage.
Matthew Dent, a professional graphic designer, had seen the competition advertised in one of the
national newspapers and he threw himself wholeheartedly into the project. In seeking to spread a single design across six denominations, Matthew Dent conceived an idea that has never been realised before on the British coinage. Against all the odds, a young artist has won a public competition and devised a stunningly original series that stands as an imaginative and clever solution.

To read more about Matthew Dent and his new designs please view

Seems an interesting idea, not long now then

I sure hope his design skills only lack when it comes to web development Visit His Website

In any case it seems like this new series will say to the world "We still have a monarchy" which is great. It's important people know then when using loose change.

You guys do sense my sarcasm right??

I'm currently working on some designs of my own. One of the coins will feature "Cupid's foot" and the edge inscription will ether read "... and now for something completely different" or alternatively "SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM".

No I'm not kidding about that!

Just a quick sketch

how about an edge inscription of "R0Y4L M1NT FTW!!!" (Royal Mint For The Win)...