The Royal Mint has introduced a number of new coin programs in recent years, such as the 2014 release of the Shengxiao Series, which represents the Chinese Lunar Calendar with exclusive designs only found at the Royal Mint. Now, the Royal Mint is celebrating the country’s longest reigning monarch with the release of a series known as the British Queen’s Beast program.
Available in both gold and silver, the program offers beautiful design and extensive variety that is sure to attract investors and collectors of all walks of life. Join us as we take a look at the British Queen’s Beast Coins from the Royal Mint.
Background on the Series
This exciting series of silver and gold coins from the Royal Mint marks the newest release of numismatic or bullion coins from the mint. The British Queens Beast Coin program is a planned 10-design series that features new designs for each of the animals featured in the coronation ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II. In total, the British Queens Beast coin series features a 1 oz gold coin, a 1/4 oz gold coin, and the Royal Mint’s first-ever 2 oz silver bullion coin.
Coins in this collection feature either .9999 pure silver or .9999 pure gold, and have face values reflective of their weight and metal content. The 2 oz Silver Queen’s Beast has a face value of £5 (GBP), while the 1 oz and ¼ oz Gold Queen’s Beast coins have face values of £100 (GBP) and £25 (GBP) respectively.
What are the Queen’s Beasts?
On June 2, 1953, Her Majesty The Queen was crowned sovereign head of England. During the ceremony, ten heraldic beasts stood guard outside the coronation in Westminster Abbey. The Queen’s Beasts, as they are known, are a collection of statues commissioned by the British Ministry of Works and sculpted by James Woodford RA. Each one stands six feet tall and was cast in plaster. Each of the ten statues depict the genealogy of The Queen, with each of the heraldic beasts symbolizing the various strands of The Queen’s royal ancestry.
Her Majesty’s Queen’s Beast collection was inspired by the King’s Beasts of Henry VIII, a series of statues lining the bridge over the moat of Hampton Court Palace where they stood guard over the Great Hall. Woodford drew his inspiration for the Queen’s Beast collection of statues directly from this collection. The original Queen’s Beasts were relocated to Windsor Castle four years after Her Majesty’s coronation, while the King’s Beasts statues remain at Hampton Court Palace today, where they still line the bridge over the moat. After a short stay at Windsor Castle, the Queen’s Beasts were put into storage, and eventually moved to Canada where they can now be found at the Canadian Museum of History in Quebec, Canada.
2016 British Queen’s Beast Design
First up in the release schedule was the 2016 British Queen’s Beast design of the Lion of England, the most prominent and important to Queen Elizabeth II directly. This exciting new lineup of silver bullion coins from the mint launched with one release in 2016 featuring inspiring designs from Jody Clark.
Clark is the same man who just reimagined Queen Elizabeth II’s portrait for the obverse of all 2016-issue British and commonwealth coinage. Her Majesty’s portrait has not been updated to reflect her age since 1998, when Sir Ian Rank-Broadley created the right-profile portrait still in use by some mints. The design of the 2016 British Queen’s Beast Lion Coin includes:
- On the reverse of the 2016 British Queen’s Beast Lion Coin is the image of a massive lion standing on its hind legs, with the heraldic shield of Britain in front of it. Engravings on this face identify the animal represented in the series, as well as the coin’s weight, purity, metal content, and year of issue.
- The obverse side of the coin bears the latest depiction of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II in right-profile relief. The Queen’s portrait is accompanied by engravings of her name and the face value in Pound Sterling. This represents the fifth iteration of Her Majesty’s portrait to appear on UK coinage since 1952.
2017 British Queen’s Beast Design
The first of two designs set for release in 2017 is the Griffin of Edward III. As with all other Royal Mint-issue coins, the Queen’s Beast collection of silver and gold coins will feature the same obverse design of Queen Elizabeth II currently in use on British coinage. Although a new design is released with each of the 10 coins in this series, there are no differences in the silver and gold coins in the same release. Design facets of the 2017 British Queen’s Beast Griffin Coin include:
- On the reverse of the 2017 1 oz British Queen’s Beast Griffin Gold Coin is the image of the Griffin, standing behind the shield of Edward III and clutching it with its two front claws. A Griffin is a mythical beast rumored to be the most powerful, possessing the body of a lion (king of beasts) and the head and wings of an eagle (king of the birds).
Upcoming Release in the Queen’s Beast Series
The Royal Mint plans to emulate all of the designs from Woodford’s original collection of statues, with Jody Clark set to create all 10 reverse coin designs. The series is set to release two coins annually, with the exception of two of the years. The 2016 debut of the coins featured only the Lion of England release, and the final year of 2021 will have just one release as well. Here are the future design concepts from the 2nd coin of 2017 through until the end of the program:
- 3rd: The Falcon of the Plantagenets (2017)
- 4th: The Black Bull of Clarence (2018)
- 5th: The Yale of Beaufort (2018)
- 6th: The White Lion of Mortimer (2019)
- 7th: The White Greyhound of Richmond (2019)
- 8th: The Red Dragon of Wales (2020)
- 9th: The Unicorn of Scotland (2020)
- 10th: The White Horse of Hanover (2021)
Keep Checking Our Online Catalog!
JM Bullion currently has all three versions of the 2016 British Queen’s Beast Lion coin and 2017 British Queen’s Beast Griffin coin in stock and available for purchase, but don’t hesitate to pull the trigger on these exciting bullion coins from the Royal Mint. And, don’t forget to check back frequently to our catalog for the upcoming releases in the Queen’s Beast collection.
