Last year the Royal Mint launched a competition to find new designs for six denominations. That competition ended in November 2005 ...

http://www.royalmint.com/RoyalMint/web/sit...Competition.asp

... but since then I have not seen any news about those new designs. Have they (descriptions, or even images) been published anywhere?

Christian

No idea. 2007 perhaps?

I still haven't seen any 2006 coins yet, i think the mint are a bit behind this year. The 'copper' (i use the term in it's loosest sense) has usually appeared by about May. [Or at least that's the case in recent years]. Maybe they've gone back to the old release them in autumn thing?

And maybe they wisely decided the designs sucked and they had to go back to the drawing board so we don't get another Churchill Crown or "God Save the Queen" Fiver.

I agree with that!

Me too. I just was not sure about the current "status" of that competition. Thanks!

Christian

Bounce

Sorry for dragging up an old topic (that was last posted in on the 6th June 2006) but it seems that the new designs could be seen this year, see the link below from BBC News, regarding the 1p coin it mentions about "finishing touches to the new designs"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6589171.stm

Thanks for the news and the link! Do you know by any chance if there are plans to make the 2p coin a little smaller? Its size is a little strange in my opinion, especially as the 5p pieces now are smaller than they were before ...

Christian

No mention of a size change, just a simple design change. To be honest they are long overdue a design change (except for the 20p which should have been left alone IMHO) after all many monarch's previously had many different design changes over their reigns & considering Elizabeth II is only around 10 years short of Victoria's reign she hasn't really had that many design changes during her 54 years on the throne compared to Victoria

True, but on the other hand quite a few changes have happened since Elizabeth became queen, particularly the switch from the "LSD" system to the decimal one, or the introduction of £1 and £2 coins. When the 5, 10 and 50 pence were resized, that would have been opportunities to modify their looks. But I assume that the "old" designs were purposely not replaced, in order to demonstrate continuity. In any case, at least as a collector I think it's about time to introduce new designs ...

Christian

Agreed, it was getting a bit boring collecting the same design for every year for the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p & 50p. I just hope Brittania makes it onto one of the designs

A slight update to this thread but not an "official one" I have been searching, in vain, for any sneak peaks of the new coins and the closest of anything that represented new designs were these:

http://coindesigns.50webs.com/index.html

They're not bad but it's not really changing much is it? Plus I'm not a fan of flora & fauna coins hence why out of the "regional issues" (IOM, Jersey, Gurnsey, Falkland Islands & St Helena and Ascension) I have Guernsey at the bottom of my list.

Personally I'm hoping for a "Buildings of great Britain" theme so, for example we could have Big Ben (with The Houses Of Parliment), Stone Henge, Angel Of The North, Bullring Centre, etc.

Either that or retro designs in similar vain to the issues of 200-300 years ago

Well I though I would update you all on this subject. It has definately been confirmed that the new designs will hit our, erm, tills next year

In the meantime I though I would point you all to this link

Clicky

The Royal Mint have done what I hoped they would, a limited release of 100,000 (not sure if this is just for base metal or for all three types been released, gold, silver & base) of the old designs for 2008 as well as a release of the new designs.

The new designs are yet to surface, however as soon as they do I will try to be the first to post them

I am afraid that the $:£ ratio means that one of the 2008 examples of this will not be coming my way

Ah well get the base metal set, only £9.95

Interestingly enough this seems to be the last time the £1 Royal Coat Of Arms design will be used

If the £ was only $1.50 or so, it would be okay, but at $2.04 it gets a bit twa pricey for my Scottish blood. My buying anything from Britain or even Europe and Canada is gone for the now.

Wow, has it really got that high? I thought it was lowering again. Sorry I forgot the US Dollar is still hovering around $2=£1.

Wonder if any of the old designs will leak with 2008 on them? Wonder what they'll fetch seeing as this is limited to 100,000

I do wonder what they are going to change the £1 for next year seeing as it wasn't part of the design competition.

Just looking at this picture, if you look at the "back" card of this set you can see some designs in the top left, I wonder if any of these refer to the new designs, the 2p looks good

Scottish is actually a Scot after all?

Or is it one of those references to ancestral blood you americans like to make?

By the way, what are these supposed design changes supposed to be? I don't see any...

They're to be released soon, apparently. The set won't be available until Spring 2008 I just hope we don't have to wait as long before we see the designs (I predic mid November)

The most interesting thing about this though is that the £1 coin is to change, they're dropping the Royal Shield design after all these years. Wonder what they'll replace that with???

Dropping the Coat of Arms??? wha~??
I cannot imagine!!

Well it's going to be a looooooooooong wait. I got the colour brouchers regarding this set in the post today and some bad news, according to the letter they cannot even reveal the new designs until Spring 2008 but they promise they will be good & will sit well next to the "last of the old set".

Make of that what you will, hoepfully that means we'll still have a "traditional" design rather than the European style of random shapes

Also they are doing only 250 sets of the coins in Platinum, price: £4995.00 I'll take two sets please

OMG! looks like I'll be staying away from those platinums.....oh well I will have to wait until next year to see the novel new ideas the mint has come up with for the coinage... no biggie really

Ah come on, Camilla isn't that bad

What? Red Rum on the back of a coin, unthinkable

Acutally I have an odd coin with Charles & Camilla on it. I'll try & scan in tomorrow

I just don't like her surname... :>?

Charles Parker Bowles?

I do believe that Britain should pass him up, and go for King William IV and Queen Kate(hopefully)

Well that may happen, actually he will be William V (or William VI if Charles does take the throne). I think alot of people think Elizabeth II will live as long as the Queen Mother (and I really hope she does) but we never know when she will pass on.

TBH whether she's on the throne for another 2 years or 20 years Charles won't be on there long anyway

Right I got this set but the inside illustrations are different, however there is an interesting alternative image for the 50p, will I get in trouble for posting a picture of this or not?

I doubt you will!

Go on, be a devil, we're all dying for a sneak peek!

Right, ok fair enough, now I must point out this was a design that was proposed for the 50p coin bakc in 1969 but never got used, however I think it works really well, and I prefer it to the £1 version:

Nice! Many thanks for the sneak peak! I like it too, it breaks the mould, makes a fresh change,

Unfortunately that's not the proposed design, that was a rejected one from 1969 which was reject as people at the time complained that there was no Britannia on the coins

Sadly it's only existance will only ever be as a drawing

Oh...

The first thing that came to mind when I heard about new coins for 2008 was "I bet they make the pound coin bi-metallic", that was before finding out that they will be pretty much the same except for the reverse.

I was thinking last night about how common these counterfeit pound coins are (I'm convinced I have another two).

I got to thinking. Would it not be possible for the Royal Mint to make a bi-metallic pound coin that matches the dimensions and weight and (possibly even resistance) of the currently circulating pound coin? Thus making counterfeiting harder while leaving little adjustment necessary to infrastructure.

I'm no expert (and so probably wrong ) but is this within the scope of possibility?

It is possible but I'm not sure it would happen, I'm always finding counterfeit £1 coins and so I've only kept £3 as I'd end up losing money

Clive.

An ever so minor update but a little bit of news. First off the new designs have been confirmed (by the metro) for release in April. Secondly and perhaps rather sadly the new designs will NOT feature Brittania on one of them

Also the Queen has chosen these designs, lets just hope one chose wisely

Cripes- I fear we will see horsey face, aka the Duchess of Cornwall on them

Amy Winehouse, Pete Doherty and Wayne Rooney are meant to be on the reverses.

Clive.

Ah, the British yellow press - well, a certain part of it - has found a new "campaign" theme.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...d=1770&ct=5

In my opinion the article is ... errm, well. But the 50p designs on that page are kind of funny.

Christian

I absolutely hate tabloids and hope every one of them a slow miserable death.

Notice how Brown is made out to have stormed into number 10 on day one demanding it be removed. Notice the Queen a few paragraphs later getting no slagging at all. Notice how Britannia on our coins is the only thing keeping this country afloat and without it we'll sink into the ocean and never be seen again. They do my nut in.

There are many ways that Brown can be shown to have ignored the Britishness he defends, they are really scraping the barrel if this is all they can come up with. Likewise there are many things that represent Britain better than Britannia. Just because something is historic or traditional doesn't mean it is relevant.

I'm not expressing any opinions in this post, just making points.

Don't give them ideas




At the designs

As for the Daily Facist, sorry Daily Mail they as a paper are full of s***, apparently 700 billion evil immigrants are inbading us & screwing this country over

The Mail, Express & Star are the worst, especially the last two who at one stage were right up the a*** of the Labour Government

But I have an mention in an article in the Sunday Post about Scottish banknotes, so don't bash them. At the same time that article came out in 2003 I gave an interview on BBC about Scottish banknotes. Well that was my 5 minutes of fame.

What was it about? what did you say?

Oh dear ... just the CoA (or rather various elements from the Royal Arms) on the new coins?

"An article in the London Gazette on February 15, 2008 revealed that all the new coins will have designs based around the UK's royal coat of arms, with each denomination focusing on particular quarters of the shield in the arms, representing particular constituent nations of the United Kingdom."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_coins#New_designs

Christian

*sigh*

Same old same old.


Can anyone tell me what these are all about? I assume they where never really minted

These are pattern coins, hence the pattern under the creatures, these were the designs that were rejected in favour of our boring bridges. They were still issued in Royal Mint sets. Nice coins in my opinion, far better than bridges!

Clive.

Those designs are beautiful. I would love to see those designs out into production!

At least it'll keep the Dail Heil, sorry Mail happy then, because the Royal Shield is tradtional