HOW KING CHARLES HELPED CRAFT HIS COINS

 
Each piece displays a British animal or plant

For many, the death of Elizabeth II almost two years ago was a moment for sombre reflection. For the 1,000 or so staff at the Royal Mint in the Ely Valley near Cardiff, it was also a call to action.

It was very emotional for us, says Paul Morgan, the head of coin design, when we meet at the Royal Mint production facility and visitor centre on Thursday. Everything we produced here had Her Majesty's effigy on it. But the next morning, I remember looking in the mirror and being hit by the realisation. We've got a job to do. And we've got to do it well.

Almost two years on, the results of his labour are glinting before us in a back office at the south Wales site — which combines the dark grandeur of JRR Tolkien's Mordor with a certain keep-calm-and-carry-on cheer.

This is the full set of Carolean definitives: eight shiny new coins to define the reign of Charles III: from the humble penny to the mighty £2. Small sets of commemorative coins were issued for the coronation and then His Majesty's 75th birthday, but this is the first official set for general circulation.

As we speak, three million pound coins, bearing a new bee design, are jangling their way through post offices and banks and then, if you're lucky, into your change. The 50p entered circulation last year but everyone agrees, the pound is a landmark moment. The pound is the iconic coin, says Gordon Summers, the chief engraver. In my lifetime, we've only ever had one monarch in circulation. So the fact we've got the King's coinage in circulation is pretty important. It's a whole new era, really.

Each new coin has the effigy of the King on the obverse (the technical term for the heads side). The image was modelled in plaster by the sculptor Martin Jennings, 3D-scanned and then inverted into the master tools used to make the steel dies that strike each coin. Charles is looking left. His mother looked right. Monarchs traditionally alternate left and right with the exception of Edward VIII who didn't like his right side. But none of his coins made it into circulation after his abdication.

On the reverse of the coin (tails) is a conservation theme — a representation of the interior of Charles's head, you might say. Each piece displays a distinctive British animal or plant: a hazel dormouse on the 1p, a red squirrel on the 2p, an oak leaf on the 5p, a capercaillie grouse on the 10p, a puffin on the 20p, a leaping Atlantic salmon on the 50p, two bees on the £1 and a combined rose, daffodil, thistle and shamrock motif on the £2. The conservation theme replaces the fragmented shield design seen on Elizabeth II's last set of definitives in 2008.

 
Steve Dyer, master craftsman at the Royal Mint

There's a motif of three interlocking Cs (take that, Coco Chanel), inspired by Charles II, who had a double-C design on his coinage. The Cs stand for crown, community and conservation, the unifying themes of Charles's coronation speech.

The King was heavily involved in the design, Summers recalls. The Cs were originally facing down. Charles felt that the C at the bottom looked like an upside-down horseshoe and looked a bit unlucky. The Cs were duly flipped. That's the level of detail he looked at, says Summers.

To read the complete article, see:
Birds, bees and Cs: how King Charles helped to craft his new coins (https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/birds-bees-and-cs-how-king-charles-helped-to-craft-his-new-coins-bxbtn3km5)

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