New Royal Mint 2004 Issues - Have you seen them?

[Emperor Oli 0]

I've just got the leaflet through for the new 2004 issues from the Royal Mint. I am horrified. I had a bloody seizure. Has the Mint gone stark-raving mad?

The new £2 is abysmal - I cannot stress enough how rubbish it looks. With a steam engine poking around and weird 'power-words' like "invention", "industry" and "progress", you would wish you were blind.

Moving on, the £1 is quite bearable. However, looking at the further "Bridge" £1s to be released, I can't help be shocked at the designs on them. The new 50p with Roger Bannister's legs on and a stopclock is extremely boring and not-at-all exciting to the eye. Where has the sculptor's skill gone?

Do other people agree with me that these new issues are ludicrous? I have set up a Vote to se how others feel....

[Sylvester 15]

The new £2 is abysmal - I cannot stress enough how rubbish it looks. With a steam engine poking around and weird 'power-words' like "invention", "industry" and "progress", you would wish you were blind.

Moving on, the £1 is quite bearable. However, looking at the further "Bridge" £1s to be released, I can't help be shocked at the designs on them. The new 50p with Roger Bannister's legs on and a stopclock is extremely boring and not-at-all exciting to the eye. Where has the sculptor's skill gone?

Do other people agree with me that these new issues are ludicrous? I have set up a Vote to se how others feel....

Have you got any links to any pictures? (I had no idea about the proposed new ideas to the £1 reverse, but i had realised that the current designs had ran their course. Personally i'll be glad to see the back of the Welsh Dragon and the Irish Cross, i never liked those two, well put it this way, it's not that i don't like them as such it's just i'm sick of seeing them!)

I wonder why they didn't choose London Bridge? Rather than that eyesore they picked for England!

I've yet to see the £2 coin or the 50p though. (personally i'm a big fan of the Britannia design so i sigh everytime i see a commemorative design).

My opinion is that there are far too many commemorative issues these days, good Gods it's almost as bad as stamps! I think the mint are selling out...

I crave to go back to the days when commemoratives were issued once every 10 years or less. Back to the good days when commemorative crowns were issues as regularly as 1935, 1951, 1960, 1965, 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1981. And even that's a bit more than i'd like.

(1937 and 1953 fall into the first coins of the reign category rather than as commemoratives in my opinion, like those crowns dated 1887, 1893 and 1902.)

Too many commemoratives reduce the 'special' issue. Now if they only issued them every 25 years then a commemorative would indeed be a sought after, eagerly anticipated (probably!), 'special' issue coin. Now we are getting to the stage where the commemoratives are going to be more widespread in circulation than the 'normal' design...ludicrous in my opinion.

Sylvester.

[Chris Perkins 228]

I've always maintained there are for too many commomorative coins these days and they are all about making money for the mint.

I cringe when someone contacts me saying they have a lot of Westminster collection coins to sell. It's over priced, and sells very slowly when it isn't new in my experience.

People that religiously buy every new issue are being mugged, and their coins will probably be worth less than they paid for them for the next 70 years at least.

I too would like to see pictures of htese new issues.

Chris

[Emperor Oli 0]

How do I upload an image?

[Chris Perkins 228]

When you make a normal post it should say:

'You may attach a file to this message.

Maximum file size (in bytes): 51200000'

Browse your Hard drive and select any .jpg or .gif you want to display with your post.

Not too huge!

Chris

[Emperor Oli 0]

Here they are and the new deluxe set is in a wooden box; classy!

[Chris Perkins 228]

What a stupid 50p!

Perhaps you should also pop that image in the debate section so the voters can see it.

Chris

[Emperor Oli 0]

Good idea!

[Sylvester 15]

What a stupid 50p!

Perhaps you should also pop that image in the debate section so the voters can see it.

Chris

Why am i thinking of the 1973 one all over again?

Sylvester.

[Chris Perkins 228]

No, the 73 hands was a million times better than a runner with no body!

Like I always say, just a money making ploy.

It won't be long until we start seeing celebritys on coins, holograms and more sickly colourisation.

Chris

[Sylvester 15]

No, the 73 hands was a million times better than a runner with no body!

Like I always say, just a money making ploy.

It won't be long until we start seeing celebritys on coins, holograms and more sickly colourisation.

Chris

Anyone dreading a David Beckham coin? I know i am...

Sylvester.

[Chris Perkins 228]

Hmmmm,

Sometimes I think the Isle of Man exists only for the TT race and to produce ridiculous Cat, Harry Potter, TT race coins and an uncollectable amount of 'commemorative' tosh.

I hope I am never forced to sell new issues!!!

Chris

[Sylvester 15]

I think new issues just try too hard to be 'sensational' and sadly (or maybe rather funnily...depending on the coin) they fail miserably.

I've yet to see anyone that would buy a commemorative coin over a Gothic Crown...

Sylvester.

[Guest Guest]

What is your personal opinion on the new 1 pound brdige designs for the next four years?

[Chris Perkins 228]

Average.

Well, at least there is some variety in the designs which is more than can be said for some country's, but they could have picked a few bridge's that people have heard about.

[Guest Guest]

Maybe they tried to break with tradition, and diverify in what people relate to British landmarks

[Chris Perkins 228]

Yes of course, and they want to appear to some degree 'trendy', younger, new, and not stuffy like perhaps some people think of the Royal Mint and anything to do with the government.

Most people don't care what they see on the back of the coins in their pockets, but I believe the people that do care, don't want unknown bridges.

I'm sure they are very nice bridges, and there would no doubt be lots of people stuck on the wrong sides of many rivers if it wasn't for those wonderful bridges, but there are so many fabulous building and bridges that have never appeared on coins.

[Sylvester 15]

I'm sure they are very nice bridges, and there would no doubt be lots of people stuck on the wrong sides of many rivers if it wasn't for those wonderful bridges, but there are so many fabulous building and bridges that have never appeared on coins.

Why have they not done London Bridge???

[Geoff T 3]

It looks like the Forth Bridge to me, which in fairness ought to be one of the most familar British bridges. London Bridge is completely nondescript. Are you thinking about Tower Bridge, Sylvester? I thought only 1960s Arizonan businessmen made that mistake :-)

Geoff

[Chris Perkins 228]

Yes, that's very true! I like Tower Bridge very much.

[Sylvester 15]

It looks like the Forth Bridge to me, which in fairness ought to be one of the most familar British bridges. London Bridge is completely nondescript. Are you thinking about Tower Bridge, Sylvester? I thought only 1960s Arizonan businessmen made that mistake :-)

Geoff

Yes i meant Tower Bridge...sorry i'm an ignorant person from the north!

The English one i believe is actually the Millennium bridge...at Gateshead? Now that coin is horrid.

The Scottish one is the Forth Bridge. That's pretty decent.

[Geoff T 3]

No excuse, Sylvester - so am I!

Geoff

[Emperor Oli 0]

Tower Bridge would have been far better than the coma-inducing garbage they are forcing upon us

[Geoff T 3]

I was in London yesterday and saw the 2004 coins for real in Coincraft. I'm fairly equivocal about them, but it struck me that one reason they've not found popularity elsewhere is that the designs lack the symmetry which we take for granted in many of our coins, even decimal ones. I'm sure, for instance, that part of the unattractiveness of the Churchill crown stems from its asymmetrical reverse (and the Ostbloc style legend).

For the record, the four bridges to be featured on the £1 coins are

Forth bridge - Soctland

Millennium bridge, Gateshead - England

Menai bridge - Wales

Egyptian arch - Northern Ireland

Geoff