Year 2008 Coins

Going - Britannia on the Fifty Pence

The Queen - Staying?

Going - Lion Passant Guardant on the Ten Pence

Going - Prince of Wales Feathers on the Two Pence

Going - Crowned Rose on the Twenty Pence

Going - Crowned Portcullis on the Penny

Going - Crowned Thistle on the Five Pence

The Real Story - April 2nd - Jig Saw Coat of Arms

Queen Goes!
Expect an announcement today that the Queen's portrait will be removed from the UK coinage, and replaced with prominent politicians and statesmen.
So as to remain politically neutral, Prime Minister Brown is expected to announce that portraits of the political opposition will be featured on the backsides of the coins.

Half Price Gold Sovereigns
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Gordon Brown's Great Gold Sale of the Century, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Royal Mint is to sell all its gold sovereigns at half price. Those who can remember the "good old days" will recall that the Bank of England, on behalf of the Government, sold large parts of Britain's Gold Reserves at the rock bottom of the market, the lowest prices for 25 years. Since then gold has trebled in price. At the time British investors could not fully participate because of VAT on gold coins, which the EU removed on January 1st 2000. The new "Half Price Gold" sale will partly make up for this.

What's the Date?
Yes, this page is going live on April 1st, so we felt it appropriate to have a little fun, but on a serious note, the new coin designs have been heralded, and are currently embargoed until April 2nd 2008. It struck us that this was a strange choice of date, and we believe it's because the UK media might take the announcement of new coin designs as part of an April Fool's Day joke if it made the announcement on April 1st, so the Mint, or the Chancellor, who is the Master of the Mint, has delayed the announcement for one day, to be on the safe side.

Watch This Space!
Full details of all new designs will be shown here soon.

What's Known

2005 Design Competition
It was announced in 2005, that a design would be held to help select all new coin designs for Britain's definitive coin designs, in a change planned for 2008.

BBC Website - 17th August 2005

The Royal Mint has launched a competition to find new designs for six of the UK's coins.
The winning designs will be used on the "tail side" of coins from the penny to 50p with each designer winning £5,000.
The existing designs, except for the 20p, have not changed since they were introduced with decimalisation in 1971.
Would-be designers have been asked to come up with images that better reflect modern Britain, while the Queen's portrait will remain on the other side.
The Queen has ultimate say in the final design of the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p coins, after the chancellor approves the selection chosen by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee.
The public will have to compete against invited artists and the Royal Mint Engraving Department.
Royal Mint chief executive Gerald Sheehan said: "Although we use coins everyday and we often take them and their designs for granted, it is fascinating how strongly people feel about the coinage and how integral it is to our history."
Design ideas
The Royal Mint, based in Llantrisant, south Wales, did highlight "heraldry" as a potential design element, but want it to be shown in an "imaginative and creative way".
Other themes it suggests are flora or fauna, geographic features, social, political or cultural achievements or British institutions.
The Royal Mint advised against having a person on the reverse side because of the difficulty of choosing a candidate and to avoid having two heads on a coin.
The competition closes on 14 November when the public will be consulted on the designs prior to formal approval.
The one and two pound coins are not included in the competition as they were only recently re-designed.

October 2007 Comment from ALLAN WALLACE, formerly Director of Collector Coin for The Royal Mint.

The traditional collector coin programme should use the £5 crown in its various alloys (CuNi silver and gold) and its various quality standards (circulation BU and proof). Starting in 2009/2010 an annual issue of three base, three silver and one gold could be considered over a four year period. The Royal Mint will also have an obligation to generate revenue for the London 2012 Olympics and will need a programme which will continue to attract both traditional and new collectors through its lifetime.
What the above programme will not do is reinvigorate an interest in coins and coin collecting amongst the younger generation and/or the general population.
Here is an opportunity for the Royal Mint to develop a circulation coin programme which has the potential to revitalise coin collecting in the UK, just as the States Quarters Programme did in the USA. The Mint needs to think "outside the box" and consider using one of the larger diameter smaller denomination, not currently used in its regular collector coin programmes.
The obvious contenders for this role are the 2p (25.9mm) and the 10p (24.5mm) circulating coins, either of which would be suitable. They both meet the major requirements of being accessible, collectable and exchangeable (all important factors in the children's market).
It should be feasible to produce three designs per year in the four-year run up to 2012, making it possible to put together low cost collections of "real" coins that can be found in pockets and purses all across the country.
I suspect that there will be strong resistance from traditionalists both inside the Mint and outside, but consideration of the long term benefits of growing a base of young collectors which will sustain the fun.

Daily Telegraph On Track For One Pence

2008 Emblems of Britain Proof Coin Collection in Platinum
All seven of the existing definitive circulation coin designs issued in a platinum proof set

2008 Emblems of Britain Proof Coin Collection in Gold
All seven of the existing definitive circulation coin designs issued in a gold proof set.

2008 Emblems of Britain Proof Coin Collection in Silver
All seven of the existing definitive circulation coin designs issued in a silver proof set.

2008 Emblems of Britain Proof Coin Collection - All Versions
All seven of the existing definitive circulation coin designs issued - all versions.

British Euro Design Competition
For some reason, it escaped our attention at the time, but apparently there was a Royal Mint sponsored competition in 1996, to design euro coins.

Uncool Britannia
Of all the existing designs, Britannia is almost certain to be the most controversial. In our opinion, it is the most iconic of all our definitive coin designs in recent history. The only other contender would be St. George and the dragon which currently appears on gold sovereigns, halves and multiples. St George also used to grace our crowns (five shillings) from 1817 to 1951, but has not appeared on a current circulation coin for over 50 years. He could well be a popular choice for one of the "new" designs, possibly on a pound coin.
The Press appear to have picked up on the fact that getting rid of Britannia was George Brown's idea, and as he seems to be coming in for an increasing amount of flak, we would not be surprised to hear him getting the blame for it, there is always considerable resistance to change.
We have a whole section on our website about The History of Britannia on British Coins.

More To Follow
We will be adding more links to this page as more information becomes available about year 2008 dated coin issues.

2007 Coins Index

If you want to find the value of a coin you own, please take a look at our page I've Found An Old Coin, What's It Worth?

If you wish to receive further information about the year 2008 coins when available, we'd be happy to hear from you.