Commonwealth Games 1986

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The Commonwealth Games of 1986 were held in Edinburgh, and the Royal Mint sponsored an international series of commemorative coins to celebrate it. The UK also participated in this program. This was the UK's first sport-themed coin, and it also inaugurated the UK's new nickel-brass 2 pound coin. Previously the crown (5 shillings / 25 pence) had been used for most UK commemoratives (apart from the EEC 50p), but in its final years of use (1980 and 1981) it had cost too much to produce, relative to its face value. However, the government at that time was not prepared to accept a big leap in the face value of commemoratives, as it worried about the potential public reaction to this. Had the face value of the crown been increased to 2 pounds in 1986, there might indeed have been an adverse public reaction, but the novelty of producing a new coin, with a face value of 2 pounds, cleverly got around that difficulty.

At first it was thought that the Queen would be against the idea of such a commemorative coin, but the Duke of Edinburgh was very enthusiastic. The introduction of the commemorative 2 pound coin was a small but important step in the loosening of UK's conservative attitude to commemorative coins.

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First of all, I will post some of Norman Sillman's preliminary designs for the UK.

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More designs by Norman Sillman. You will see that he wrongly used the year 1985 on some.

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Eventually, Mr Sillman clothed his naked runners, and the design was used for Jersey instead.

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This was Norman Sillman's basic design for the UK. The year is wrong again, though. It shows that very conservative attitudes were still in place, and one of the Royal Mint's sales staff, in an internal memo, complained that he had to sell yet another thistle to collectors.   

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Here we see some far more exciting entries from Frank Forster. I must admit I had never heard of him before. Unfortunately the scans have been cropped.

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Another two entries, by John Jennings this time. Again, I have never heard of him.

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Entries by Robert Elderton.

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Leslie Durbin produced a few old-fashioned and very traditionalist designs (not shown), but these two show how out of touch he was.

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Some nice modern designs by artist Faith Winter. But can you imagine such figure-hugging leotards on a British coin of 1986? 

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This was Norman Sillman's basic design for the UK. The year is wrong again, though. It shows that very conservative attitudes were still in place, and one of the Royal Mint's sales staff, in an internal memo, complained that he had to sell yet another thistle to collectors.   

And Lizzie thought it looked like a crab.

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Three entries by Barry Stanton. I do like the bottom two.