UK jigsaw series: proto-designs

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The UK jigsaw series in gold.

Graphic artist Matthew Dent won the competition to design a new UK coinage series.

It was first issued in 2008 and is colloquially known as the jigsaw set.

As a reminder, here is an image of that set, though the coins here are in gold.

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An early sketch of the  jigsaw series.

Here you see one of Dent's initial sketches, from the Royal Mint's publication, "Designing Change: The Art of Coin Design" (2008).Dent's design is based on the shield of the Royal coat of arms. At the bottom left you see a female figure on the Irish harp. The Royal Mint publication gives no reason why that design was not used, but the figure is portrayed with breasts, which may or may not have offended sensitivities in these strangely schizophrenic times.

The other point to note is that at the bottom right you can see a Welsh dragon. When the finished set was issued, it was criticised by some for containing no specific reference to the Welsh, but in fact this dragon does not appear on the Royal shield. Wales is a principality, whereas England and Scotland are kingdoms, as was Ireland before the South became independent. In the UK we have English law, Scottish law and Northern Irish law, but English law covers both England and Wales. This may give you some idea of the lower status of Wales, constitutionally.

The image is slightly blurred because of the bend in the book. The "coin" containing the dragon's tail carries the denomination of 5 pence, whilst the Scottish lion (top right) is denominated as 2 pence. The "1 PENCE" denomination (next to the female figure) is of course ungrammatical and should be "1 PENNY".

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Another exploratory sketch.

This later sketch still includes the female figure on the harp, but the Welsh dragon has now been replaced by the English leopards. In fact the leopards do inhabit two of the quarters of the actual Royal shield, which does not depict the Welsh dragon and, to my knowledge, never has done.

The two designs illustrated in this topic are the only two prototype designs of the "jigsaw series" that are contained in the book, "Designing Change."

See also:  Failed entries from the UK's design series competition.

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Interestingly, the denominations on the proto-designs are shown in words and numbers, e.g. "10 PENCE".

The issued set gives them all in words, e.g. "TEN PENCE", and this aspect of the series was criticised by some.

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There is no angel on the original musical instrument. Neither is there one on the current Irish arms. However, there is an earlier heraldic design with the angel. Wikipedia says:

The modern design is markedly different from earlier depictions. During the 17th century, it became common to depict the harp with a woman's head and breasts, like a ship's figurehead, as the pillar.

Dent picked the wrong version of the arms.

Peter

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There is no angel on the original musical instrument. Neither is there one on the current Irish arms. However, there is an earlier heraldic design with the angel.

The figure on the Irish halfpence of the late 17th century in particular was so bulky compared to the harp overall that such an instrument, if constructed, would have fallen to pieces from the strain rather than being anything actually playable.

http://irishcoins.com/?id=5418

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Alternative version of the UK jigsaw series.

Another image from the Royal Mint's publication, "Designing Change: The Art of Coin Design" (2008).