In their latest 2016 series of coins, the Royal Mint issued a set of four Proof silver coins – “Portrait of Britain 2016 UK £5 Silver Collection”. Glyn Davies and Laura Clancy, a coin designer duo of the Royal Mint, captured watercolour-style portraits of Britain’s best-loved natural landmarks.

The Royal Mint is the world’s leading export mint. It makes coins and medals for on an average 60 countries every year. But its primary responsibility is to make and distribute United Kingdom coins and supply blanks and official medals of the country. The Queen opened Royal Mint in 1968 for the introduction of the decimal coinage. The Royal Mint headquarter is in Llantrisant, South Wales and employs more than 900 people. The Royal Mint can produce 90 million coins and blanks a week, i.e. almost five billion coins a year. The Royal Mint is a government-owned company.

Creating real watercolours was the main task in the process that brought the designs to Proof .925 fine silver £5 coins. This is the second collection series exploring a Portrait of Britain featuring contemporary designs with trichromatic colour pad printing.

In these four coins set called the Portrait of Britain Collection, the iconic landscapes of the world-renowned landmarks of the United Kingdom are captured. Snowdonia, the Giant’s Causeway, the Lake District, and the White Cliffs of Dover are renowned for their beauty and value in history and myth. The designers of these coins, Glyn Davies and Laura Clancy, have precisely captured the details of these historic sites. They visited each site independently and together to capture a real sense of place, representing the changing qualities of the British weather and creating a colour effect similar to that of an impressionist painting. “Instead of a solid layer of colour, we used the trichromatic process to create subtle tints. It’s like the difference in effect between painting with oils or with watercolours. It’s a softer effect that allows the metal beneath to show through, creating an ‘impressionist’ feel and reflecting the shifting light and colour of the landscapes.” said the Royal Mint Chief Engraver Gordon Summers, while describing the process of making of these beautiful coins.

On the backside of the coin are Snowdonia / the Giant’s Causeway / the Lake District / the White Cliffs of Dover engraved, and the Jody Clark effigy of Queen Elizabeth II appears on the front of all four coins. Only 2,016 sets struck in Sterling Silver to Proof standard, showcasing natural Britain at its best, are available.