Queen Mother's 90th birthday commemoratives: flower series of 1990

Started by <k>, May 05, 2017, 02:35:31 PM

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<k>

In 1990 the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (UK), turned 90. Because she was known to be very fond of flowers, it was suggested that flowers be used in the designs to commemorative her birthday. This was an international series of commemoratives, and though I am not especially interested in monarchy or flowers, I noticed that the same design appeared to have been used for several countries. In itself, I found the design rather boring. However, I eventually noticed each design showed different flowers.

Looking at the Royal Mint documents from that time, I saw that the flower species were named, and sometimes alternative flower designs were considered but not used. Current references do not include the species names, so that is one good reason to create this topic.

Not all the Queen Mother commemorative coins of 1990 included this floral motif, but some of those that did were also issued in silver or gold. I believe that, in all, 12 countries or territories issued such a coin.
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<k>

Here is the reverse of the Belize issue. Unfortunately, this no Royal Mint document has yet been released to the archives that deals with this design. Does anybody know the species (including scientific names) of the flowers portrayed?
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<k>

Bermuda next. Unfortunately the documents included only one low quality scan of the original sketch. All the designs shown in this topic were the work of Royal Mint engraver Leslie Durbin.
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<k>

The Cayman Islands next. This design features Oncidium orchids.
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<k>

East Caribbean States. Hibiscus rosa senensis.
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<k>

Falkland Islands: Falkland thrift and pale maiden appear in the first design sketch, but this was not used.

The issued coin featured the Falkland vanilla daisy (leucheria suaveonlens) and pale maiden (Sisyrinchium filifolium).
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<k>

Guernsey: Nerine sarniensis and Freesia refracta. These appeared on the issued design.

An alternative design showed only Nerine sarniensis.
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<k>

Jersey Pink (Dianthus gallicus), and Jersey Fern (Anogramma leptophylla).
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<k>

St. Helena-Ascension. The large Bell flower (Wahlenbergia Linifolia) and the Jellico (Sium Helenianum).
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<k>

Tristan da Cunha: three alternatives, but only one was chosen.
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<k>

The Turks and Caicos next. They offered CACTI to an old lady?  :o
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<k>

Finally, the UK. I found no preliminary sketches for this design. It features the rose for England and the thistle for Scotland.
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Figleaf

Quote from: <k> on May 05, 2017, 02:37:56 PM
Does anybody know the species (including scientific names) of the flowers portrayed?

The designated national flower of Belize is the black orchid (Encyclia Cochleatum). The flower on the left of the coin does not look like what you get most if you search black orchid pictures, but the description fits and I found a pic of a variant that fits also.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

<k>

That's a difficult one. The leaves look right, but the plant appears to have berries, making it a coffee plant.  :D  That can't be right either. Although the Turks and Caicos coin shows cacti - not what you would class as flowers!
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Figleaf

The larger picture clears up the confusion between leaf and principal petal. I am now sure that it is the black orchid. Not a clue on what the right flower is, but I suspect it is also a plant that is endemic to Belize. Can't see any berries, though.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.