Gibraltar crown 1967-70: Preliminary artwork

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Arnold Machin.[/size]


In 1966 the Royal Mint hired Arnold Machin to design a collector crown for Gibraltar.

Gibraltar issued a crown bearing this reverse design from 1967 to 1970.


Machin was famous for his effigy of the Queen.

It appeared on the obverse of this Gibraltar crown.

It also appeared on millions of other coins throughout the world.




The Gibraltar crown as issued.

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Gibraltar's coat of arms shows a castle and a key.

Gibraltar is regarded as the key to the Mediterrean.


There are various versions of the coat of arms.

They have different styles of castle.

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The first preliminary designs.

The style of castle is different from the one on the finished coin.

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The style of castle was eventually changed.

Originally the design was going to have an inner circle.

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The Royal Mint Advisory Committee decided that the design would look better without the circle.

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These are images of the glossy photos of the designs.

They are held in the National Archives, London.

I found it impossible to avoid glare while taking these photos.

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Here is the finished design once more.

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For information about the decimal coins issued by Gibraltar, click on the link below:

Milestones in the decimal coinage of Gibraltar

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Not sure what the thinking was behind changing the style of the castle, but I see them positively. Rather than a closed, menacing military fortress, a dark reminder of the past, the end result was a heraldic symbol with doors and windows open to the world.

The world was not shocked by the final result, but it could have been. The symbolic castle is a much-used element on all kinds of medieval coins along the West coast of the European continent. Remember the row about Indian coins that seemed to imitate a Christian crusader coin? This one could have caused a similar uproar, because the castle or city gate or city wall with three towers was used for decades on the ceitils of PORTUGAL, common coins, well known to coin collectors in the area. Picture from this thread

Peter

[WillieBoyd2]

The Spirit of Ceitil Past!

Portugal Ceitil Alphonso V 1438-1481 (Alfonso V)
Very thin copper coin 20mm, 1.70gm

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The castle in reply #2 resembles the design used on the copper "quarts" in the 1840s.

It was were presumably the model.