The Royal Mint has revealed its highly anticipated new design for its range of Britannia coins, starting with the 2021 coins which were released on October 19th 2020. Philip Nathan’s classic design remains, but now with additional ‘micro-detail’ design elements to make counterfeiting near impossible.
The updated design has been heralded as “the most overtly secure bullion coin in the world” by Andy Dickey, Division Director for Precious Metals at The Royal Mint, and comes as part of a wider drive across the bullion industry to tackle forgeries.
There are four new security features for the 2021 Britannia coin range, as shown on the image above. The first of these is a new background design to look like waves as the light catches the coin’s metal surface. While the previous guilloche design was a smart look, the new design from The Royal Mint is even harder to replicate. As an added touch, angling the coin differently will make the waves look like they are moving.
The second new feature are the sleek lines on Britannia’s shield – a style found amongst British heraldry over the last thousand years or more – but the new hologram is the most impressive addition. Number three appears to be a Trident symbol, referring to Britain’s naval heritage, but tilt the coin and the icon changes to a padlock – a not-so-subtle reference to the coin’s new counterfeiting measures.
The final added protection is a ring of miniscule writing along a secondary, inner edge of the coin. This repeats the latin phrase ‘Decus Et Tutamen’, which means ‘An ornament and a safeguard’.
Original article source: https://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/gold-news/2020/october/06/royal-mint-reveals-new-high-security-britannia-coins-2021/
Original image source: https://www.royalmint.com/invest/bullion/bullion-coins/gold-coins/britannia-2021-tenth-oz-gold-coin/
