The Royal Mint have officially unveiled the new coin portrait for His Majesty The King Charles III. Following 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II on British coins, the new King’s portrait is a historic moment for UK coinage.
The new portrait of King Charles III as seen on The Royal Mint Facebook page.
The new portrait has been designed by British sculptor Martin Jennings. Jennings is known for iconic sculptures around the UK including John Betjeman at St Pancras Station, Philip Larkin in Hull, Charles Dickens in Portsmouth and George Orwell outside BBC Broadcasting House.
The new coin portrait is Jennings first foray into royal coins, however his time as a calligrapher gave him experience in chiselling fine detail into stone. Speaking about the piece with The Royal Mint he said – “The piece is modelled in plaster larger than the size of the coin, so about the size of a dinner plate. I work by hand using tiny, tiny millimetres of material to model it. And eventually, once it is complete and cast in plaster, my original design can be digitally reduced so that the impression is the right size for a coin.”
King Charles has personally approved the design, based on multiple photographs of the monarch. As expected, His Majesty faces left in his official portrait, opposite to previous monarch’s orientation per a long-standing tradition.
The portrait will for now feature on a memorial coin for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and will be limited to just those coins for the remainder of 2022. This will however include a 50p coin that will be entering circulation, though The Royal Mint have not issued a release date for the coin at this time.
