Ring in the New Year with the 2025 Annual Coin Set!

Every year, the Annual Coin Set is one of the most eagerly anticipated releases, as it’s the first chance collectors have to secure some of the key coins from the year ahead. The 2025 Annual Set includes five brand new 2025 coins, celebrating the very best of British culture, iconic figures, institutions and events that have shaped the nation’s history.

So, let’s take a closer look at the coins in the 2025 Annual Coin Set…

2025 Annual Coin Set

A closer look at the 2025 Annual Coin Set

Red Arrows 50p

Speed. Agility. Precision…these are the hallmarks of the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team—better known as the Red Arrows. And to mark 60 years since their first display in 1965, the Red Arrows are being celebrated on a UK 50p.

2024 Red Arrows 50p

The iconic team has wowed audiences worldwide with their breath taking displays across 57 countries with nearly 5,000 shows, making them a global symbol of excellence. Now, their legacy is celebrated with this special UK 50p coin, featuring three sleek and distinctive Hawk T1 aircraft and their smoke trails.

This is the first time the Red Arrows have featured on a UK coin, and the design perfectly represents their inspiring and captivating displays which are loved by so many.

Stories of The Second World War 50p

The Second World War was a time when extraordinary courage and relentless effort came from all corners of the UK and the Commonwealth, forever shaping modern British society.

From the battlefields to the home front, everyone played a role in the war effort—each story, a testament to resilience and unity.

2025 Stories of WWII 50p

The Stories of the Second World War 50p honours their service, depicting the medals awarded to millions who contributed to the cause. The medals featured include the 1939-45 Star, Defence Medal and War Medal, representing the countless unique experiences of the Second World War.

Steam Passenger Train £2

On to the £2 coins, the first of which commemorates 200 years since the very first steam passenger train journey. On September 27, 1825, George Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1 made history by carrying hundreds of passengers across 26 miles—from Shildon to Stockton—launching a journey that would shape the modern world.

2025 Steam Passenger Train £2

Since Locomotion 1’s inaugural journey, rail travel has undergone huge technological and engineering advancements, transforming every aspect of life including tourism, trade, post and even football.

This £2 coin commemorates that ground breaking moment in 1825, with a design featuring Locomotion Number 1 in action, packed with excited passengers and the inscription ‘The Journey that changed the world’, along with the years 1825-2025.

Royal Greenwich Observatory £2

The second £2 coin in the Annual Set celebrates 350 years of the UK’s first purpose build scientific institution – the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

The observatory was commissioned in 1674 by Charles II and was intended as a beacon for timekeeping and sea navigation. It’s home to the historic Prime Meridian of the World, which divides the eastern and western hemispheres and gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor to today’s Coordinated Universal Time. 

2025 Royal Greenwich Observatory £2

The design on this £2 coin captures the Observatory’s rich legacy, featuring the Shepherd Gate Clock, the constellation Ursa Minor, the star Polaris and the meridian line in front of a globe. The coin also includes the edge inscription ‘PERFECTING THE ART OF NAVIGATION’, taken from the Observatory’s founding Royal Warrant.

Birth of the Queen Mother £5

The last coin we need to talk about will actually only be available as part of the 2025 Annual Coin Set, as it won’t be individually released, and that’s the Birth of the Queen Mother £5.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was a symbol of national strength and resilience, especially during the trials of the Second World War, and across a remarkable life spanning more than a century, she steadfastly supported two British monarchs—her husband, King George VI, and her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

2025 Queen Mother £5

This exclusive £5 coin marks 125 years since the birth of Queen Elizabeth, with a design featuring a timeless portrait that celebrates her enduring legacy, along with her royal cypher, thistles and roses. And interestingly, the portrait has been taken from the design on the 1980 coin that marked her 80th birthday.

Last year, there was also one coin from the Annual Set that wasn’t individually issued, the Winston Churchill £2, however collectors didn’t know this right away, so we want to make sure you don’t miss this exclusive chance to own this coin by securing the 2025 Annual Coin Set.


So there you have the 2025 Annual Coin Set, a collection of five incredible coins from the year to come.

And whilst 4 of these coins will be individually released later in the year, the only way to get the Queen Mother £5 is by securing the 2025 Annual Set.


Secure the 2025 Annual Coin Set

Each coin has been struck to a superior Brilliant Uncirculated quality and is protectively encapsulated in official Change Checker packaging, housed in a display page ready to slot into your Change Checker Album.

2025 Annual Coin Set

To ensure you don’t miss out on adding all FIVE new coins to your collection for JUST £42 (+postage), click here >>

The designers behind the faces on our coins

In the last century, there have been 9 different designers who have created the effigies of monarchs that feature on UK and Commonwealth coin obverses.

The most recent change in designer came after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, when the baton was passed from Jody Clark to Martin Jennings to create the UK coinage portrait of King Charles III.

Let’s look back at those who designed the portraits that feature on every coin in our pockets…


George William de Saulles

George William de Saulles
Credit: Look and Learn.

George William de Saulles worked at The Royal Mint from 1892 as ‘Engraver to the Mint’, engraving the dies for what would become known as the ‘Old Head’ or ‘Widowed Head’ coinage of 1893, featuring a portrait of Queen Victoria. de Saulles went on to design the obverse portrait of Edward VII, used on UK coins from 1902 until the end of his reign in 1910.

Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal

Sir Bertram Mackennal
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

When George V became King in 1910, Australian born sculptor Bertram Mackennal was responsible for the design on the coronation medal, the obverse of UK currency, postage stamps and military honours for King George V.

Mackennal was also commissioned to produce several monuments and statues around the world, including his home country of Australia, India and Scotland. He was appointed M.V.O. in 1912 and knighted in 1921, making him the first Australian-born artist to be so honoured.

(Thomas) Humphrey Paget

Humphrey Paget
Credit: Royal Mint Museum

Humphrey Paget designed the effigy for King Edward VIII, however due to his short reign and abdication, Paget’s designs never reached the minting stage. Some trial pieces did find their way out of the mint for testing purposes, and these are thought to be some of the most rare and collectible pieces of all sterling coinage.

Mary Gillick

Mary Gillick
Credit: Royal Mint Museum

Mary Gillick was the first artist to design a Queen Elizabeth II portrait, and remains the only female designer of UK coinage obverse effigies. Her portrait, used on UK coinage between 1953 and 1970, shows Her Majesty uncrowned and was the last to be used on pre-decimal coinage.

Arnold Machin

Arnold Machin
Credit: Royal Mint Museum

Arnold Machin designed the royal portrait which featured on the first UK decimal coins from 1968 to 1984. He also created the reverse design of the 1972 Silver Wedding Crown, the obverse and reverse of the 1977 Silver Jubilee Crown and the royal portrait which appeared on definitive British stamps between 1967 and 2023.

As well as designing UK coinage and stamps, Arnold Machin’s designs were also used on coins in Rhodesia in 1964, Canada between 1965-1889, Australia between 1966-1984 and New Zealand in 1967-1985.

Raphael Maklouf

Raphael Maklouf
Credit: Tower Mint

In 1982, The Royal Mint asked 17 artists to submit models of Queen Elizabeth II to be considered a replacement for Arnold Machin’s then-outdated likeness of the Queen on UK and Commonwealth coinage. The Royal Mint Advisory Committee selected Israeli-born British sculptor Raphael Maklouf’s design, now known as the ‘Third Portrait’ to take over, and it featured on UK and Commonwealth coins until from 1985 until 1997. 

Ian Rank-Broadley

Ian Rank-Broadley
Credit: Tatler

Ian Rank-Broadley won The Royal Mint’s competition to design a new Queen Elizabeth II effigy in 1997, making him the designer of the ‘Forth Portrait’. Rank-Broadley was influenced by Pistrucci’s portrait of George III which was issued in 1817, where the head crowds the field of the coin. His portrait featured on UK and Commonwealth coinage between 1998 and 2015.

Jody Clark

Jody Clark
Credit: The Mirror

In 2015, Jody Clark’s submission to a design competition was chosen to become the fifth coin portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. At 33 years old, he was the youngest designer to have designed a portrait for British coinage. He was also the first designer to use computer-aided design software when creating his portrait. Despite the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, Clark’s portrait continues to feature on the UK coins featuring Her Majesty which currently co-circulate with new King Charles III coins.

Martin Jennings

Martin Jennings
Credit: The Royal Mint

Martin Jennings is a British sculptor renowned for his public sculptures across the UK. His most notable and admired works include statues of prominent writers and poets, such as John Betjeman at St Pancras Station and Charles Dickens in Guildhall Square, Portsmouth.

The Royal Mint commissioned Jennings to design the first definitive coinage portrait of King Charles III in 2022 which features on all new UK King Charles III commemorative and definitive coins. Jennings also created a special crowned effigy version of the UK Coronation 50p and £5 which is only available on the collector editions of these coins, setting it apart from the Coronation 50ps you can find in your change. 


The Queen Elizabeth II Portraits Penny Collecting Page

From decimalisation to 2022, four different portraits of Queen Elizabeth II featured on our circulating coinage. With this Change Checker collecting pack, you can piece together a fascinating timeline which shows the changing face of Her Majesty over her remarkable 70 years on the throne.

Get yours for £9.99 (+p&p) >>

Can you spot the ‘major design error’ on The Gruffalo’s Child 50p?

I knew this 50p would hit the headlines, but I didn’t think it would be because of a major design ‘error’!

The brand new 50p released today celebrates the 20th anniversary of the best-selling children’s book – The Gruffalo’s Child. Following in the footsteps of the sell-out Gruffalo 50ps from 2019, the 2024 The Gruffalo’s Child is already proving incredibly popular with collectors.

But you might already have noticed something unusual is afoot with the coin’s design…

How many toes?

The coin’s design brings to life a pivotal moment in the story when the Gruffalo’s Child comes face to face with the cunning mouse. The mouse can be seen to the left, sporting a sneaky smirk and the Gruffalo’s Child waits anxiously on the right, Stick Man in hand.

Whilst I’m sure you’ll agree this new 50p is simply adorable, what you might not have realised is that the design includes a major ‘error‘…

If you look closely, you’ll see the Gruffalo’s Child is depicted with three toes on each foot. Interestingly, eagle-eyed collectors out there have noticed that this could be a potential error on the coin. That’s because the original illustrations from the book show the Gruffalo’s Child with four toes (or rather claws!) on each foot, as does the 2011 BBC film adaptation.

Although the coin design features an image taken from an illustration in the book, it seems that the book version shows the Gruffalo’s Child’s toes hidden in the snow, whereas they can be seen above the snow on the coin. And this is where the ‘error’ can be spotted.

You’ll also notice that although the footprints in the snow aren’t clearly defined in the original illustration, on the coin they clearly show just three toes on each of the Gruffalo’s Child’s footprints.

Whilst this could be due to the viewing angle where two toes might be hidden by the snow, there’s no doubt that the footprints only have three toes on each!

Previous design ‘error’

This isn’t the first time there’s been a design ‘error’ like this on a UK coin, as the 2021 H. G. Wells £2 featured a four-legged tripod, making it arguably one of the most controversial and talked about coin designs in recent years. The unusual design hit the headlines when collectors noticed the additional leg featuring on the Martian from Wells’ famed War of the Worlds when the coin was issued in the 2021 Annual Coin Set.


Could this make The Gruffalo’s Child 50p even more sought-after?

This isn’t technically an ‘error coin’, but could show an issue with the design if indeed The Gruffalo’s Child is missing two toes!

Something like this generally makes coins even more collectible and sought-after amongst collectors. It certainly makes for interesting collecting and, with press articles already popping up about the ‘major error’, this 50p is certainly one to watch…

Don’t miss out on the chance to own yours!

Secure the 2024 The Gruffalo’s Child 50p for your collection >>