British Royal Mint - Open Competition

Those of us living in the UK will have probably seen the news regarding how The British Royal Mint are holding an Open Design Competition to find new designs for the reverse side of the one, two, five, ten, twenty and fifty pence coinage.

Download: Royal Mint Full Design Brief (PDF 30k)

This is a fantastic opportunity to and one I'd recommend you don't pass up on. You never know, your design could win! I'm entering because there's plenty of time before the 14th November 2005 deadline in which to come up with something decent... which is important because the Mint themselves invite professional coin designers to take part.

Submitted designs are narrowed down by the Mint, who invite the best entrants to submit moulds of their designs ((thankfully the Mint will have those moulds professionally made for you if you request it)). Then these are presented to the Chancellor of the Exchequer who'll then make his recommendations to the Queen. It is she who has the final say.

I'm currently working on the one penny coin - my theme for all six designs being the recreation of our institutional symbols in a more modern style. To be honest, if I had the power, I'd keep the current coin designs but I guess change is inevitable. What I'd dread seeing are coins with David Beckham or some other 'celebrity' on the reverse.