Same Elton John design on various denominations

[<k>]

UK, 2 pounds, 2020.

I'm enjoying using Numista's newly expanded filters to explore specific years, decades and denominations. In this way I have stumbled across things I have never noticed before.

I rarely pay attention to the UK's non-circulating issues, but I had heard of the 2020 collector issues commemorating Elton John, David Bowie, Queen, etc. Clearly that is another step in the modernisation and democratisation of British design. Checking Numista, I was surprised to see that Elton John (or a caricature of him) appears on a variety of collector coins of different denominations: 1, 2, 5, 25, 100, 200 and 1000 pounds - some silver, some gold. There are also two 5 pound coins: one is copper-nickel and crown-sized (38.61 mm), while the other is silver and slightly larger at 40 mm in diameter.

The rock band Queen is featured only on 1, 2 and 5 pound collector coins. I now wonder for how long the same design has been placed on different denominations, and what decides which designs get more denominations than others? My mind boggles at the sheer proliferation of issues here.

[Big_M]

Numista is clearly not complete here, the gold coins were also issued in the Queen series. If my memory is correct all music legends series have the same structure as Elton John series. Indeed, it not possible to follow the UK NCLT due to the recent and quickly rising proliferation of various issues, some of which are exclusives not distributed by the Royal Mint, but by other parties.

[<k>]

Thank you, M. One can hardly blame Numista for not keeping up, in circumstances like these.

Strangely, it was only recently that I noticed Guernsey had done similar trick in the 1990s, putting the same collector design on two or more denominations.

[<k>]

So now, Big_M, can you remember in which year the the Royal Mint started this practice of placing a design on more than one denomination? Or else, when was the first year that you noticed this?

[Big_M]

So now, Big_M, can you remember in which year the the Royal Mint started this practice of placing a design on more than one denomination? Or else, when was the first year that you noticed this?

The first case I can find is the 2013 Royal Christening coins:

2013 Royal Christening coins

[<k>]

Thanks, M. That's cheating really, isn't it? As you see, though, I think Guernsey started that trick and gave the UK that idea.