ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS ROYAL MINT COIN SCULPTOR NORMAN SILLMAN

MILLIONS of people from Costa Rica to Cardiff look at and use the art of a man from Eye every single day.

Rather than art galleries, though, you’ll find Norman Sillman’s designs in wallets, leisure centre lockers and down the back of sofas.

In fact, dip your hand in your pocket right now, and pull out a �£1 coin �" chances are, it’s Mr Sillman’s design.

The sculptor has produced more than 200 coins for 33 countries, with Vietnam, Uruguay, Zambia, Qatar, Outer Mongolia and Tonga among those which use his designs.

Mr Sillman also designed four of the most recent �£1 coins in circulation in the UK.

When asked whether he is proud to have designed one of the most viewed artworks in the UK, Mr Sillman stated: “It is just a part of what one does; although I suppose you could say it was a dream job, as it combined a number of my interests.”

One of the 90-year-old’s earliest jobs was with model soldier company Britains Petite, and with them, he designed the well-respected Trojan Warriors set - a line now housed in a Singaporean museum.

Mr Sillman received his first commission for a coin from the Royal Mint in 1956 for Bermuda, and didn’t look back thereafter for the next 40 years.

“More often than not the countries wanted you to have the ideas, and that was fine by me, because my interests are art, anthropology and history,” he said.

It’s not just coins that Mr Sillman has designed either: he has made medals too, and sculpted the ones presented to the bigwigs behind the 1969 moon landing.

Despite designing the 1986 British Commonwealth Games’ �£2 coin and commemorative medals for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 and the marriage of Charles and Diana in 1981, Mr Sillman is best known in the UK for his �£1 coin designs.

He designed the Celtic cross with a pimpernel flower for Northern Ireland (1996), the three lions passant for England (1997), and the Welsh dragon and Scottish lion coins (1995 and 1994 respectively).

They each took Mr Sillman about four days to design, although he had to be careful with the former due to the delicate political and religious situation in Ireland.

To read the complete article, see: Norman’s work is in your pocket (www.dissexpress.co.uk/news/latest-news/
norman_s_work_is_in_your_pocket_1_3154413)

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web