Sterling area and Commonwealth: new portraits of the Queen in the 21st century

[Alan71]

Jersey has issued a £5 coin for the Queen's 95th birthday with what appears to be yet another new portrait.

[<k>]

Jersey, 5 pounds (gold), 2021.

I wonder who designed it.

[SandyGuyUK]

I wonder who designed it.

According to the Westminster Collection website, it's by Luigi Badia.

[<k>]

Mr. Badia! He has done lots of designs for the Turks and Caicos.

[eurocoin]

The new portrait by Badia on the coin of Jersey is a commemorative obverse portrait, a different category of portrait which I think we should at some point research in a separate topic. The Turks and Caicos portrait by Badia is a standard obverse portrait.

[<k>]

The Turks and Caicos portrait by Badia is a standard obverse portrait.

I don't think we can say that. Turks and Caicos issue collector coins only. These cannot be regarded as standard or regular.

[eurocoin]

With 'standard obverse portrait', I do not mean that the portrait was used on standard circulating coins. With 'standard obverse portrait' I mean that the design was used on a wide range of coins with different themes and in different years. The new Luigi Badia obverse portrait for Jersey will only be used this year. This special obverse portrait was made to celebrate the 95th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is therefore a commemorative obverse portrait. And there are more examples of such commemorative obverse portraits.

[<k>]

I see.

[<k>]

What do you make of this portrait of the Queen? Is it yet another version of the Maklouf portrait?

[eurocoin]

Jersey 1998
Australia 1998
Gibraltar 1998
Guernsey 1998
Isle of Man 1998
United Kingdom 1998

Bermuda 1999
New Zealand 1999
Cayman Islands 1999
Turks and Caicos Islands 1999

Zambia 2000
Cook Islands 2000*
Solomon Islands 2000
Uganda 2001
East Caribbean States 2002

Falkland Islands 2003
British Virgin Islands 2004
Niue 2005**
Fiji 2006
Alderney 2006

Tuvalu 2011
Tokelau 2011
Kiribati 2012
Trinidad and Tobago 2012
Ghana 2013***

Samoa 2015
Pitcairn Islands 2015
Cameroon 2016
Nauru 2017



* Possibly an imitation. The design seems to be a bit different and the 'IRB' initials are missing. If it is indeed imitation, correct year is 2003.
** The coin series 'From Greece to China' was excluded as these pieces are undated and it is unknown when they were issued.
*** Ghana used the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait since 2001 on the pieces denominated in sika that it released. These are not legal tender and so not included here.

[<k>]

Bahamas, $250, 2022.  The Queen's Platinum Jubilee.  Gold collector coin.

According to the Royal Mint, the portrait design was by Ffion Gwillim, with model by Daniel Thorne.

My thanks to our forum member eurocoin for providing me with this information.


Image copyright of the Central Bank of the Bahamas.

[eurocoin]

The 2 portraits below are the only official IRB obverse portraits. Both portraits were sculpted by Ian Rank-Broadley.



The portrait below of which several variants exist, some of which pictured, is not an official version, even though it also exists with the IRB initials beneath it. Mr Rank-Broadley commented that an unauthorised chest was added to his portrait, therefore infringing his moral rights as the artist. He described the crude variant on the left as a bad pirate copy, that had nothing to do with him.

[eurocoin]

An obverse portrait that was used on a recent collectors coin of Alderney to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee. It was designed by Jody Clark. I don't really like it. In general I feel that a significant part of Jody Clark's works at The Commonwealth Mint are a waste of his talent.

[<k>]

I've edited the image. Why do they make such a mess of them these days?

[eurocoin]

Haha, yes I do not understand either. I had already edited the image but could not get it dark enough. This is what the original looks like. Incomprehensible that the coin dealers and mints do not seem to understand that that does not look good at all.