ROYAL MINT UNVEILS NEW PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH

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V18 2015 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 18, Number 10, March 8, 2015, Article 14

David Pickup was the first to forward word of the announcement of the Royal Mint's new portrait of the Queen Elizabeth II. Here's an excerpt from the official release, issued March 2nd. -Editor

The Royal Mint has today unveiled a new coinage portrait of Her Majesty The Queen, giving the general public the first glimpse of the image that will soon be a familiar sight on United Kingdom coins.

This is only the fifth definitive portrait of The Queen to appear on our circulating coins since her accession to the throne in 1952, making it a very rare event indeed. When it appears in our change later this year, it will become the fourth portrait currently in circulation, joining those created in 1968, 1985 and 1998; together, the coins that carry them tell the story of Her Majesty’s lifetime and paint a compelling picture of the story of her reign.

It has also been revealed today that the new portrait is designed by Jody Clark. He is the first Royal Mint engraver to be chosen to create a definitive royal coinage portrait in over 100 years.

Just 33 when his design was selected from a number of anonymous submissions to a design competition, Jody is the youngest of the five designers to have created the portraits of The Queen that have appeared on UK circulating coin during her 63 year reign.

Adam Lawrence, Chief Executive of The Royal Mint, said: “This change of royal portrait will make 2015 a vintage year for UK coins, and it will be hugely exciting for us all to see the new design appear on the coins we use every day.

“Jody’s achievement is something that we can celebrate as a proud moment for The Royal Mint. Capturing a portrait on the surface of a coin demands the utmost skill, and is one of the most challenging disciplines of the coin designer’s art. The last Royal Mint Engraver to be commissioned to undertake a royal portrait was George William de Saulles, who engraved the portrait of Edward VII which first appeared on the coinage in 1902”

Hooray, no more Mrs Grumpy, the Queen CAN smile!

Here's an excerpt form an article in The Guardian. -Editor

Time has finally caught up with Queen Elizabeth II – on her money at least. Her profile is visibly aged in a new coin portrait by Jody Clark. The royal image on Britain’s coinage will, when this design goes into circulation, be unmistakably that of an 88-year-old, including prominent wrinkles.

The dignity of the regal image can surely survive this numismatic realism. With her crown, big earring and half smile the Queen looks as quietly authoritative on her latest coins as she did on her first in 1953. The Royal Mint has changed her face just four times since then. Even these reluctant remodellings maintained an impression of timeless classical grace that made the ageing process almost unnoticeable – until now.

In fact, the Queen has been idealised on her coinage far more than ancient rulers ever were. This is the first fiscal image of her entire reign that lives up to the realism of ancient Roman coin portraits of emperors. Nero, for instance, looks fat and puppyish on his coins. They fit his reputation as a baby-faced psychopath. Romans liked their portraits realistic – the Capitoline museum in Rome has rooms full of ugly senators – and the imperial image on coins was frank because it needed to be authentic. Money must be the real thing.

David Sundman forwarded this article from The Times. Thanks! -Editor

The Queen is looking happy. And in millions of pockets and purses and piggy banks, she will continue to do so for the rest of her reign.

The new portrait to appear on British coins was unveiled yesterday. It might show the Queen looking somewhat older and more lined, but also shows a warmer, less stern monarch than the version of the past 17 years.

It is the work of Jody Clark, 34, the youngest engraver to have created an image of the Queen on UK coins during her 63-year reign.

“I wanted to have a bit more of a warmer expression,” said Mr Clark, from Bowness-on-Windermere. “I just thought that was fitting.

“This is probably a final portrait. It’s quite nice to have one that’s a little bit more positive.” The portrait, the fifth of the Queen created for the nation’s coinage, replaces one unveiled in 1998 by Ian Rank-Broadley, who said his version should be “a recognisable one, and not over-idealised”.

If the Queen is looking less grumpy than she did 17 years ago, it may be because she has been treated relatively kindly: there are a few more lines, but not so many that an 88-year-old woman would have cause for complaint.

The new portrait is the first to have been designed entirely on computer, not to mention the first created by a former designer of supermarket packaging. It shows the Queen wearing the diamond diadem worn for the Coronation, a deliberate decision to make “some clear distinctions” from the 1998 portrait, in which she is wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara.

As well as an attempt to make the two portraits look different, it was also a reference to the image created by Raphael Maklouf for coins in 1985, in which she was last shown wearing the diadem. “It’s a real nod to the past,” said Mr Clark.

Coins bearing the new portrait, the fifth since her accession to the throne in 1952, will be in circulation towards the end of the year — probably after September 9, when she becomes Britain’s longest-serving monarch.