Geoffrey Colley, Coin Designer

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Geoffrey Colley was born in Gillingham, Kent, England. He studied art in Kent and London.

He designed the first coinage of Malaysia, which was issued in 1967. The common reverse showed Parliament House.

The obverse designs featured the same floral motif, along with the country name, year and denomination.

See also: Rejected Malaysian Wildlife Set of 1966.




Obverse of the Malaysian 1 sen coin, dated 1967.



Reverse of the Malaysian 1 sen coin.  Mr Colley's initials can be seen at bottom right.

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Iceland, 50 kronur, 1968.

Mr Colley modelled the 1968 commemorative coin depicting the Parliament Building in Reykjavik.

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½ kobo.  Cotton plants.
1 kobo.   Oil derricks.
5 kobo.   Cocoa beans.
10 kobo. Palm trees.
25 kobo. Peanuts.

Reverse: Coat of arms.

Mr Colley designed Nigeria's first decimal coinage of 1973.

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The scarce one year Mozambique set of 1975 was also the work of Mr Colley. He also designed the obverse portrait of President Samora Machel.

1  centimo.   Angolan protea.     Protea angolensis.
2  centimos.  Rain daisy.             Dimorphotheca pluvialis.
5  centimos.  Purple dissotis.      Dissotis princeps.
10 centimos.  Sugar cane.
20 centimos.  Tea plant.
50 centimos.  Cashew nuts.
1  metica.     Sisal agave.
2½ meticas.   Cotton plant.

See also: Mystery Mozambican Coins of 1975.

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1  fils.        Palm tree.
5  fils.        Mata Hari fish.
10 fils.      Arab dhow.
25 fils.      Goitred gazelle.
50 fils.      Oil derricks.
1  dirham.  Arab coffee can.

The first independent coinage of the United Arab Emirates, released in 1973, was designed by Mr Colley.


See also: Coinage of the United Arab Emirates.

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Mr Colley was one of several artists to enter the competition to design Britain's decimal coins. To see sketches of the wildlife designs he submitted, click on the link below:

Unadopted UK Decimal Designs Circa 1966/7.

[Figleaf]

Congratulations with yet another piece of ecellent research. Is it a coincidence that none of the pieces you show are signed? How did you find out they are Colley's?

Peter

[africancoins]

The Malaysia building etc.. design is signed - can't see any others.

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

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Congratulations with yet another piece of excellent research. Is it a coincidence that none of the pieces you show are signed? How did you find out they are Colley's?

Peter

I have a couple of pdfs that deal with modern coin designers. They don't mention his Mozambique designs, though, and for a very good reason: I asked the Royal Mint about that set a few years ago, and was the first to make public the information they gave me. Until then, nobody even knew which species some of the designs were meant to represent. All in all, I regard that as the greatest service I have ever done for modern numismatics, especially since that set remains a scarce and rather mysterious one.

As for the lack of initials on the coins, maybe it was a requirement of the client governments, but I don't honestly know.

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Incidentally, you'll notice that he has produced two designs of oil derricks, on a 50 fils coin of the United Arab Emirates and on a Nigerian 1 kobo.

See also: Oil rigs and refineries.

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Geoffrey Colley designed the reverses of the Mozambique circulation series that was first issued in 1994.

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According to the Royal Mint:

A new portrait of King Hussein of Jordan by Geoffrey Colley was introduced for circulating coins in 1978.

It had been used the preceding year on three Jordan coins issued as part of the Conservation Coin Collection.

This was an international project in collaboration with the WWF which helped finance conservation programmes.

Link: Royal Mint Museum, Jordan

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This 10 florin coin was issued in 2002 by Aruba to commemorate the marriage of Prince Willem-Alexander and Máxima Zorreguieta.  Mr. Colley designed the reverse of the coin.

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Mr Colley designed the reverse of Bermuda's crown of 1964, and you can see his initials at bottom right.

The design was based on the territory's coat of arms.

Mr Colley prepared two rather different lions in his sketches, which you can see in this topic:

Bermuda crowns of 1959 and 1964: preliminary artwork.

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Bahrain, 250 fils, 1969.  FAO issue. 

The dhow and palm tree form an attractive and typically Arab scene.