Christine Ellingham, coin designer

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Christine Ellingham, photographed in June 2021.

Christine Ellingham is a retired English artist and illustrator. During her varied career, she also produced various coin designs.

From 1957 to 1960, she completed a three-year course in art at the Banbury School of Art in Oxfordshire, England. From 1960 to 1962, she continued her studies at the Hornsey College of Art, London, where she specialised in illustration.

In 1962 she was employed as a layout artist and fashion illustrator in the advertising department of C&A, a chain of fashion retail stores.

In 1967 she was briefly employed as a magazine designer and fashion illustrator for a teenage magazine owned by City Magazines, which was part of the News of the World.

In 1968 she moved to Fleetway Publications in London, which was later to become IPC Magazines, where she contributed to various papers for the very young. She then became the art editor of a new publication called Tammy, which was a weekly British comic for young girls.

In 1972 she went freelance, supplying picture strip artwork to the publisher D.C. Thomson, which is located in Dundee, Scotland, and later to IPC Magazines.

In the early 1980s she began contributing to magazines for young women, such as True and Loving, illustrating fiction stories and fashion pages. From the mid-1980s she began contributing drawings to national newspapers, namely The Daily Mail and the Daily Mail Magazine Division, which included Weekend Magazine, The Mail on Sunday and The London Evening Standard, as well as to the Mirror Group Newspapers, which included The Sunday Mirror and The Sunday People.

During that same period, she also supplied illustrative work to various house magazines, for example, British Petroleum, British Gas and the Royal Mail. She also regularly supplied artwork to The Lady magazine.

In the mid-1990s, she contributed a drawing a week for seven weeks to the Today newspaper, just before its unfortunate end. From 1996 to 2003, she supplied artwork to The Westminster Collection, a mail order company. This work included first day cover illustrations, hand painted covers, limited edition prints, and drawings for figurines, including Paddington Bear, to name but one, as well as coin design. During that time, however, painting was becoming more important to Christine as an artist.

In 2002 she reached retirement age, but she continued to freelance for approximately two more years, whilst living partly in Spain and partly in the UK.

In 2003 she began living in Spain permanently, where she became a full-time painter. She took part in various group and solo exhibitions in that country.

In 2019 she moved back to the UK and is still painting to the present day.

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There now follows a gallery of some of Christine's coin designs.

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Guernsey, 5 pounds, 1999.  The wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones.


The same design also appeared on a 1 pound coin of 1999.

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Guernsey, 1999. 1 and 5 pound coins were issued to commemorate the Queen Mother's 99th birthday.

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Here you see Christine's sketches for the two royal portraits shown up-thread.

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Guernsey, 5 pounds, 2000.  The Queen Mother's 100th birthday.

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Guernsey, 5 pounds, 2002.  Death commemorative of the Queen Mother.

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Guernsey, 5 pounds, 2001.  The Queen's 75th birthday.

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Alderney, 5 pounds (gold), 2002.  Fifth anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.

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Jersey, 5 pounds, 2003.  Golden Jubilee. 50th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

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Alderney, 5 pounds, 1999.  The Total Eclipse of the Sun.

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Gibraltar, 1 crown, 2004.  The Tercententary of Gibraltar as a British Territory.

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Christine's initial suggestions for Gibraltar's Tercentenary crown.

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East Caribbean States, 2002.  Set of five $1 coins in gold-plated nickel.

The Golden Jubilee.  The Queen and four of her predecessors.

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Guernsey, 5 pounds, 2000.  A century of the monarchy: the 20th century.