Sculptors Artists & Engravers of British Coins

Portrait of Benedetto Pistrucci on a 1993 Silver Medallion

Mary Gillick's Portrait of Elizabeth II Shown on a 1960 Crown

Arnold Machin's Decimal Portrait Seen Here on the 1969 Fifty New Pence

Raphael Maklouf's 'Third Portrait' on a 1997 Proof Gold Britannia

Robert Elderton's Design was used on the Obverse of the 1993 Crown

Benedetto Pistrucci
Famous as the engraver of St. George and Dragon design used on the reverse of gold sovereigns since 1817, he is shown here on the obverse of a silver medallion produced by the Royal Mint in 1993. We will be adding more to this paragraph soon.

Mary Gillick
Mary Gillick was born in Nottingham in 1881 and was educated at the Nottingham High School for Girls from 1890 to 1898. She studied at the Nottingham School of Art until 1902 and was a scholar under Lanteri at the Royal College of Art from 1902 to 1904. It was in Nottingham that she met her future husband, Ernest Gillick, whose high standards and searching criticism did much to influence her and formed the basis of an ideal working partnership which lasted some forty-six years, She produced a number of medals presented on occasion by learned societies and other institutions, notably the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, and the Royal Academy Schools.
In 1952 she produced her first coin portrait when she designed the uncrowned head of the new Queen for the coinage of the United Kingdom. She was one of seventeen artists who submitted relief sketches in plaster for the first coin effigy of the new reign, and won the the competition with an uncrowned, almost informal, portrait of the young Queen Elizabeth. She chose to avoid the couped effigy of previous monarchs and by placing the portrait within a continuous inscription she recalled coins of the first Queen Elizabeth. This charming design appears on all of Britain's pre-decimal coins of Elizabeth II from 1953 to 1967, or 1970 if we include the "Last £.s.d." proof set of that year, and is still used on the small silver coins of the Royal Maundy.

Arnold Machin
Arnold Machin was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1911. He studied sculpture at Stoke-on-Trent Art College and then at Derby where he gained a Royal Exhibition to the Royal College of Art. While at the College he won a travelling scholarship, the College Medal and a continuation scholarship. Arnold Machin was elected an A.R.A. in 1947 and and R.A. in 1956. He has held posts of tutor at the Royal College of Art, Assessor to the Scottish College of Art, and Master of Sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools.
His portrait of the Queen adopted for the United Kingdom coinage in 1968, was for him a first in coin design. Previously his commercial work had been largely associated with the designs for porcelain, examples of which have been purchased by the Tate Gallery.
In anticipation of the planned new decimal coinage, Arnold Machin was commissioned to prepare a new coin portrait of the Queen. It was the first time he had worked on a numismatic design and he was granted four sittings at Buckingham Palace and Balmoral. The new design was approved in June 1964 but was not used for United Kingdom coinage until 1968, after which his "Decimal Portrait" of Elizabeth II was used on all British decimal coins from 1968 through to 1984.

Raphael Maklouf
Raphael Maklouf was born in Jerusalem on 10 December 1937 and came to the United Kingdom after the Second World War. He began sculpting at the age of thirteen, during a stay in hospital, and at sixteen became a student at the Camberwell School of Art, where he remained until 1958. For the next ten years he lectured in sculpture at a number of schools of art, including Camberwell, and in 1979 was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. In 1977 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. His work has been exhibited widely both at home and abroad, including the Royal Academy in London.
For Raphael Maklouf too, his effigy of Her Majesty the Queen approved for the United Kingdom coinage from 1985 was his first coin design.
On 8 August 1984 Her Majesty approved two new designs for use on United Kingdom coinage from 1 January 1985, one for circulating coins and one for large commemorative issues. Selected form thirty-eight models submitted by seventeen artists, both are the work of sculptor Raphael Maklouf. He set out with the intention of producing "a symbol ... regal and ageless" and following his selection was granted two sittings by the Queen.
His "Third Portrait" of Elizabeth II was used from 1985 to 1997 inclusive.

Robert Elderton
Robert Elderton designed both the obverse and reverse of the 1993 crown to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's Coronation. The designs were selected from competition entries submitted to the Royal Mint Advisory Committee and subsequently approved by Her Majesty the Queen.

More to Follow

You may wish to visit some of our other pages:
Inscriptions on British Coins
Value of my Coin. What's it Worth?
British Coin Denominations. What's a Groat,? etc.
Common Names of British Coins. What's a Tanner?

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