The unseen, unadopted, predecimal numismatic portraits of QEII

[<k>]

Last year I bought this book from the author: New Zealand history coined : coins of New Zealand (1933 - 1965) - by Robert Pepping. With postage, it cost me slightly over 47 UK pounds. I am pleased to say it was worth every penny and more.

King George VI died on 6 February 1952, then the race was on for the Royal Mint to provide a numismatic portrait of the new Queen. On page 66 of his book, Robert Pepping tells us:

The [Royal Mint] Advisory Committee examined 17 designs for the uncrowned effigy of the Queen and 12 designs for the crowned effigy. All designs were presented anonymously so as to prevent any preferential treatment or bias towards an artist.

This was news to me. I had never heard of these 29 designs, much less seen any of them. Has anybody here ever seen images of them? Apart from the issued Mary Gillick and Cecil Thomas portraits, of course (crowned and uncrowned respectively).

[Figleaf]

Haven't seen any of them. It may be a numismatic legend, but I remember a tale that young Elizabeth made the choice of portraits. The story goes that she chose the Thomas portrait because she was an admirer of Elizabeth I and she thought she looked most like Elizabeth I on that portrait.

If so (found nothing that supports my memory on the net), the 16 other designs may have been destroyed, so that second guessing/criticism would not be possible.

It looks to me like the crowned portrait was heavily inspired by the uncrowned portrait.

Peter

[<k>]

I will try to find out the answer to this question.

The crowned portrait seems to you to have been heavily inspired by the uncrowned portrait. To me, they don't, and they were both presented separately and anonymously. However, given that they were representing the same person, perhaps it isn't surprising.

[Mister T]

Haven't seen any of them. It may be a numismatic legend, but I remember a tale that young Elizabeth made the choice of portraits.

Someone told me it was part in an episode of The Crown though I haven't watched it myself to confirm.

[<k>]

In March 2020 I did obtain confirmation from the Royal Mint Museum that:

1] These alternative designs did exist.

2] 'Unfortunately we do not have the sketches of the alternative designs for the uncrowned effigy of Queen Elizabeth'.

Sadly it appears that the alternative sketches either no longer exist or are lost.

However, the Museum did provide some details of the relevant meeting of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee (RMAC) in May 1952.

They show that the Queen did not choose the crowned and uncrowned portraits. They were chosen by RMAC (of which Prince Philip was President) in a ballot.

[<k>]

The Royal Mint Museum has one of the finest collections of coins and related material in the world. It is a collection about how money is made and how the Royal Mint has evolved over the last 1100 years.

See:  The Royal Mint Museum.

[Deeman]

I found this interesting from the RM Museum site as it shows the Llantrisant mint mark - Cross Crosslet fitchy.
A cross crosslet with the lower arm replaced by a pointed spike.

The first use of this appears to be on the Coat of arms of Robert Cooke granted 1567.
He was an English Officer of Arms during the reign of Elizabeth I, who rose swiftly through the ranks of the College of Arms to Clarenceux King of Arms, serving in that office from 1567 until his death in 1594.

[<k>]

That's a splendid coat of arms, isn't it? I've never seen that one before.

[Mister T]

Haven't seen the coat of arms used anywhere (though I suppose they might not put it on their website).

[<k>]

UK shilling patterns, 1953.  Left: England; right: Scotland.




Images © The Royal Mint (UK).

RELATED TOPICS

The UK 1952 Mary Gillick and Cecil Thomas UNCROWNED effigies of QEII.

UK 1953: unadopted prototype designs of Elizabeth II.