This year I’ve seen a huge range of coins issued to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, but I’ve never seen anything like this…
In fact, there’s not been anything like this before in The Royal Mint’s 1,100-year history.
Earlier today, The Royal Mint unveiled the largest coin it has ever produced.
The gold coin, with a face value of £15,000, weighs 15kg and measures a huge 220mm (8.6in) across – 10 times the size of a Sovereign.
The one-off piece was said to have taken around 400 hours of craftsmanship and refinement, and state-of-the-art engraving and laser technology, and is another example of just how special the Platinum Jubilee is to coin collectors.
Rather than being struck between two dies like a standard coin, the rare large coins are cut into a solid gold ingot by a high-speed precision milling machine before the processes of burnishing, polishing, and frosting are carried out by hand to highlight key elements within the designs.
It features the same special obverse design that we saw on some of other official UK Platinum Jubilee coins, with Her Majesty depicted on horseback.
That range completely sold out on launch day, so you have to be pretty fortunate to own any UK Platinum Jubilee coin, let alone the biggest coin in The Royal Mint’s rich history.
There’s just one of these and it was specially commissioned for a long-standing customer of the mint, so it’s unlikely to be seen on the open market any time soon. But, if it does ever end up on the open market, we’d expect it to be selling for much much more than the £15,000 face value.
If you’re interested…
Here are some of our other blogs detailing the collecting phenomenon behind the Platinum Jubilee: