NUMISMATIC LEGACY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II
London Bridge has fallen. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept.8. She will be remembered to history, not only general history, but to numismatic history as well. Elizabeth, as the longest reigning British monarch, will leave a long and interesting legacy on coins and bank notes.
Elizabeth was not the first ruler to appear to age on coinage throughout that person’s reign. The Roman Emperor Nero appeared as a child, then as an adult, and finally as a rather rotund ruler during his short reign lasting from 54 to 68 A.D.
At the time of each Caligula’s and later Nero’s demise many of the coins on which either of their images appeared were either defaced or recalled. Today it can be expected the coinage and bank notes on which Elizabeth II appears will continue to circulate alongside the now anticipated first coinage of her son, King Charles III.
In much more recent history Queen Victoria “aged” on her coinage. Victoria’s Young Head coinage depicts her at age 18 as she ascended her throne. It wasn’t until when the monarch was 78 years old that Victoria’s image was updated to the Jubilee Head, designed by Joseph Edgar Boehm. The design was only used for six years due to public distaste for the image. In 1893 the Veiled Head image by Thomas Brock was introduced, a design used until the queen’s death in 1901.
Queen Elizabeth’s portrait has appeared on more coins worldwide than that of any other person. Furthermore, she was the first British monarch whose vignette appeared on Bank of England bank notes. The queen faces left on stamps, but right on coins.
A portrait of Elizabeth II has appeared on more than 5 billion British coins since 1953. Her image has appeared on coins of many of the British Commonwealth nations. A recently offered type set of coins on which the queen appears issued by Educational Coin Company includes examples from Australia, Belize, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Ceylon, Cyprus, East Caribbean Territory, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Gibraltar, Great Britain, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jersey, New Zealand, South Africa and St. Helena. Her vignette has appeared on the bank notes of 35 countries.
While the queen’s image has changed five times on circulating British coins there have been other obverse types produced for special occasions including for her jubilee and for the overseas territories and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1953, however it wasn’t until the following year that coins on which her image appears were released. The design by sculptor and medallic artist Mary Gillick and re-mastered by Cecil Thomas depict the couped (cut off smoothly) bust of a youthful queen wearing a laurel wreath and a dress. This design continued until 1968.
Sculptor and Royal Academician Arnold Machin designed the portrait used between 1968 and 1985. The design was meant to be used on the new decimal coinage being introduced in 1968 for familiarization and more officially for circulation in 1971. The queen appears couped wearing a robe and Girls of Great Britain
