Posts Tagged ‘Portrait’
Which Queen Elizabeth II portrait is your favourite?
Jody Clark recently added his name to an illustrious list in the history books by becoming only the fifth person to create an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II for British circulating coins. Each artist has given their own portrayal of the Queen which offers us a numismatic timeline showing her changing profile over the years.
But which of the five is your favourite? Place your vote below.
1. Mary Gillick (1953 – 1970)
The very first coins of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign bore Mary Gillick’s portrait of a youthful looking Queen, which she engraved especially for the new coins. Her uncrowned portrait is still used on Maundy Money distributed each year by Her Majesty.
2. Arnold Machin RA (1968 – 1984)
With decimalisation approaching, the Queen’s portrait was refreshed with Arnold Machin’s new sculpture. Commissioned in 1964, it first appeared in 1968 on the new 5p and 10p coins. A version of the design with a tiara was introduced on stamps in 1967 and remains to this day.
3. Raphael Maklouf (1985 – 1997)
With his portrayal of Her Majesty, Raphael Maklouf aimed to “create a symbol, regal and ageless”. Unlike the others, his original formal portrait depicting Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Royal Diadem was ‘couped’ (cut off above the shoulders) to become the third official effigy.
4. Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS (1998 – 2015)
The next portrait was created to fill the full circle of the coin in a deliberate response to the new smaller 5p and 10p coins in circulation. The designer, Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS, aimed to show the Queen with “poise and bearing” with his noticeably more mature portrayal.
5. Jody Clark (2015 – )
The latest portrait by Jody Clark was unveiled on 2nd March 2015 during a ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery. His elegant depiction of Queen Elizabeth II was selected by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee – and he is the first Royal Mint engraver for over 100 years to be commissioned for a royal coinage portrait.
Collect all 8 new portrait coins
Be ready to collect all the new portrait coins straight from your change with Change Checker’s New Portrait Coin Collecting Pack.
Click here to reserve yours
Revealed: The Queen’s New Portrait for our Coins
Today at the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Mint unveiled the new definitive portrait of Queen Elizabeth II which will appear on our circulating coinage this year. It is only the fifth portrait to appear on our coins in the Queen’s 62-year reign, and as far as collectors are concerned, events don’t come much bigger than this.
The Queen’s new coin portrait was revealed this morning
The portrait, showing a side profile of the Queen wearing a crown and drop earrings, was created by designer Jody Clark and is the winning entry of a closed competition launched by the Royal Mint late last year. Aged 33 when his design was selected, he is the youngest of the five designers to have created a portrait for Queen Elizabeth II.
Clark’s new effigy marks a brand new chapter in the history of our circulating coinage, and as any collector will tell you, first issues hold a significance and a lasting degree of collectability for years into the future.
We will see the new coins in our change over the coming weeks and months as they begin filtering through the cash centres and banks to begin with. You can be sure that many of these will be going straight into collections as Change Checkers seek to grab them in their freshly struck condition.
What do you think of the new portrait?
Create a historic collection using your pocket change
Now you can collect all eight definitive coins featuring the Queen’s new effigy as soon as you spot them in your change.
Click here to order your New Portrait Collecting Pack
The Changing Face of our Queen
Heads or tails? Well, in reality for Change Checkers, the answer is usually tails.
The reverse, or ‘tails’ side of the coin has always been the place to commemorate important anniversaries or make design changes, whilst the Queen retains her same recognisable profile on the obverse – the ‘heads’ side.
Except her profile hasn’t always been the same.
Something which often goes un-noticed on our circulating coinage is the changing face of our Queen over the years. In fact, since decimalisation, three different portraits of Queen Elizabeth II have adorned the coins in our change.
1969-1984: Arnold Machin
With decimalisation approaching, it was decided to refresh the Queen’s portrait with Arnold Machin’s new sculpture of her wearing a tiara. It was commissioned in 1964 and first appeared in 1969 on the new 5p and 10p coins. The portrait may seem very familiar – as it was introduced on stamps in 1967 and remains to this day.
1985 – 1997: Raphael Maklouf
Raphael Maklouf’s effigy replaced Machin’s in 1985 and depicts the Queen wearing the Royal Diadem which she wears to and from the State Opening of Parliament. Some critics accused him of sculpting the Queen as ‘flatteringly young’, but his response was that he aimed to create a symbol “Regal and ageless”.
1998 – Current: Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS
The current Queen’s head on our coinage was designed in 1997 by Ian Rank-Broadley. Created to fill the full circle of the coin, its larger size was a deliberate response to the smaller 5p and 10p coins in circulation. A noticeably more mature portrayal of Her Majesty, Rank-Broadley aimed to show the Queen with “poise and bearing”.
You can now collect all 3 of these portraits for both 1p and 2p denominations in a brand new Change Checker Collector’s Card.
Included with the card is a FREE coin you can’t find in your change – a pre-decimal penny featuring Mary Gillick’s portrayal of an uncrowned young Queen.
Click here to find out more