2017-10-05 Thu

On 27th September, the Royal Mint officially announced that the fourth issues of the gold and silver bullion coins in the Royal Mint’s Queen’s Beasts Series are out for sale and that they will feature the Unicorn of Scotland. Quarter- and 1-ounce .9999 fine gold coins and a 2-ounce .9999 fine silver coins would be released.

The earlier coins issued in the series depict the Red Dragon of Wales, Griffin of Edward III and the Lion of England. The series of coins is going to depict 10 mythical creatures have been symbolic for hundreds of years to portray British royal heraldry.

The designs were created by Royal Mint designer Jody Clark, who is also responsible for designing the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that is used for all United Kingdom coinage. The Queen’s Beasts sculptures by James Woodford have been the inspiration behind these coin designs.

These sculptures were created for the coronation ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II that took place in Westminster Abbey in 1953. The designer said that even though the unicorn is not real, it looks more or less like a horse, which is why he could draw on reality. Other important points that he had to keep in mind were that the unicorn has a cloven hoof. He also wanted to add a sense of movement to the design which is why he made the beast jump over the shield slightly. There is movement in the chain as well creating a dynamic effect.

The quarter-ounce gold £25 coin, 1-ounce gold £100 coin and 62.42 grams £5 silver coin are offered. The silver and 1-ounce gold coins can be purchased separately or in tubes of 10 coins while the quarter-ounce gold coin is available separately or in tubes of 25 coins.