LARGEST GOLD COIN IN UK HISTORY MARKS QUEEN’S JUBILEE

Queen Elizabeth II’s 70^th anniversary on the throne was celebrated as a “Platinum” Jubilee, but it is a gold coin that is the most memorable memento of the commemoration. 

The Royal Mint produced its largest-ever gold coin to mark the Queen’s Jubilee—a 33-pound (15- kilogram) commemorative coin made of fine—99.99 percent—pure gold. An unnamed private collector in the United Kingdom commissioned the coin, which was personally approved by the Queen. The reverse side features an image of the crown and the years of Elizabeth’s monarchy surrounded by roses, daffodils, thistles, and shamrocks, while the obverse side depicts the Queen on horseback. The coin’s diameter is 220 millimeters, or nearly 8.7 inches.

The Mint created the coin using a high-speed milling machine to cut into a solid gold ingot and advanced engraving and laser technology. Its craftsmen then burnished, polished, and frosted the coin by hand. In all, the process required nearly 400 hours of work.

For collectors without the means to have the Royal Mint create their own unique 15 kilogram fine gold coin, the Mint issued a series of gold and silver coins to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee. Each coin features Queen Elizabeth II’s signature, prominently emblazoned in the center of the design, a first for the Royal Mint. 

Only last year the Royal Mint produced a 10 kilogram gold coin, which had previously been its largest, celebrating the “Queen’s Beasts”—statues that stood guard outside Westminster Abbey at the Queen’s coronation in June of 1953, which took place more than a year after she ascended to the throne.