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Year 2008 Coins Coins Chard 24 Carat Home Page

The New Reverse Designs
The New Reverse Designs Assembled

The New One Pound Reverse Design
The New One Pound Reverse Design

Fifty Pence
Going - Britannia on the Fifty Pence

The Queen is Staying
The Queen is Staying

Twenty Pence
Twenty Pence

Ten Pence
Ten Pence

Five Pence
Five Pence

Two Pence
Two Pence

One Penny
One Penny

2008 New UK Coin Designs - April 2nd Jig-Saw
From April 2008, Great Britain will change the designs on all its coins. The new designs of the 6 minor coins will fit together like a jig-saw to complete the shield retained on the pound coin as part of the Royal Coat of Arms.

2008 Royal Shield of Arms Coin Sets for Sale
Jigsaw - in with the new - products, availability and prices.

Queen Goes - But Only on April 1st!
Ignore our April Fools' Day Announcement

The Royal Arms

As a powerful symbol of royal authority the Royal Arms, in its various forms, has featured on the coinage of almost every monarch since the reign of Edward III (1327-77). Coins were, and still are, issued under the personal authority of the monarch and came to be regarded as vehicles for royal imagery, whether in the form of a portrait or a monarch's personal Coat of Arms.

Virtually unchanged since the reign of Queen Victoria, the Royal Arms is a symbol of the Queen's authority over the whole of the United Kingdom, and has been used to powerful effect by numismatic artists over the course of her reign. The modern £1 coin of 1983 appropriately bore the Royal Arms on its reverse, the detailed depiction by Eric Sewell now a famous symbol of British currency. This was followed in 1988 with a £1 reverse design by Derek Gorringe depicting a crowned shield of the Royal Arms, reminiscent of the early sovereigns of Queen Victoria.

It is not surprising then that Matthew Dent chose the Royal Arms, and in particular the shield of the Royal Arms, as the theme for his innovative range of new designs. The Royal Arms is divided into four parts: England being represented by the three lions passant guardant in the first and fourth quarters, the Scottish lion rampant in the second and the harp of Ireland in the third, with all four quarters spread over the six coins from the 1p to the 50p. Completing the new range of coins is the £1 coin featuring the shield of the Royal Arms in its entirety, uniting the six fragmented elements into one design.

A Word From the Designer

The Designer - Matthew Dent
Matthew Dent, a professional graphic designer, had seen the competition advertised in one of the national newspapers and he threw himself wholeheartedly into the project. As an artist his inspiration comes from many sources and he explored a number of options before finally developing his ideas for an heraldic set. The result is a set of coins firmly rooted in the heraldic traditions of the British coinage yet beautifully contemporary.

In seeking to spread a single design across six denominations, Matthew Dent conceived an idea that has never been realised before on the British coinage. To have the £1 as the unifying coin only emerged towards the end of the design process. Matthew Dent has commented that 'the addition of the £1 coin design to the set was as a way of defining the whole series. A key coin uniting the designs'. Against all the odds, a young artist has won a public competition and devised a stunningly original series that stands as an imaginative and clever solution.

'I felt that the solution to the Royal Mint's brief lay in a united design - united in terms of theme, execution and coverage over the surface of the coins. I wondered about a theme of birds or plants, but also considered buildings and coastal scenery. The issue with this for me lay in their distribution; how to represent the whole of the United Kingdom over six coins. The idea of a landscape appealed to me; perhaps using well-known landscapes from different areas around the United Kingdom which could stretch off the edge of one coin onto another. This seemed like a good solution but I also wanted to look at other options and themes.

I thought the six coins could make up a shield by arranging the coins both horizontally, as with the landscape idea, as well as vertically, in a sort of jigsaw style. I liked the idea and symbolism of using the Royal Arms, where individually the coins could focus on specific elements and when placed together they reveal the complete Royal Arms.

I found the idea that members of the public could interact with the coins the most exciting aspect of this concept. It's easy to imagine the coins pushed around a school classroom table or fumbled around with on a bar - being pieced together as a jigsaw and just having fun with them.'

Matthew Dent

2005 Design Competition

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.

2008 Emblems of Britain Coin Sets - Last of the Old

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.


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