It has been revealed that The Royal Mint shelved an idea for a hexagonal 60p coin to commemorate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee of 2012.
Despite research showing support for the idea, the Royal Mint decided that the number and design of commemorative coins prepared for the jubilee were ‘sufficiently comprehensive’ and so axed the project.
What it is thought the 60p Diamond Jubilee coin would have looked like, from descriptions. (Daily Mirror)
Documents from 2011 show the coin was all ready for production, before the organisation, who mints all legal tender in the UK, pulled the plug on the six-sided coin.
The coin – one penny for each year of Her Majesty’s reign – would have stood out against the heptagonal (seven-sided) 50p and 20p coins, but was only intended as a commemorative piece, and not for general circulation.
It was the Press Association who submitted a Freedom of Information request for ‘themes considered by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee’, the quango responsible for recommending designs of coins to the Treasury. The documents were released under the FOI Act
The Royal Mint initially refused to release the documents but was forced to disclose them by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) following a successful appeal by the Press Association.
From the descriptions in the documents it appears the coin would have a gold rim and silver centre, like the current £2 coin.
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was to be marked with a 60p coin – until the Royal Mint decided against it. NIO.
The document reads: “It is recommended that an entirely new denomination coin – a 60p piece – should be produced to commemorate the 60 years of Her Majesty’s reign.
“The proposed coin would be a six-sided bi-colour coin with round of nickel-brass and a shaped outer of cupro-nickel. The coin would be issued for commemorative purposes only, there being no intention for it to be issued into general circulation.
“A coin of this shape and denomination has never been issued before in the United Kingdom and the Royal Mint undertakes not to issue only in connection with the Diamond Jubilee.
“Research has been conducted amongst consumers with a majority expressing a preference for the issue of such a coin.”
An event of ‘huge national importance’, as the documents described it, should be marked with more than one type of coin and the mint were ‘concerned’ there weren’t any more. The Treasury had ‘no objection’ to what it was proposing.
