2022-dated UK 50 Years of Pride Wins Best Contemporary Event
The United Kingdom’s Royal Mint won the Coin of the Year (COTY) Awards’ “Best Contemporary Event Coin” category for 2022-dated coins. The award-winning coin, which celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Pride, is the Royal Mint’s first ever coin celebrating Britain’s LGBTQ+ community.
The 50 pence coin was developed in collaboration with Pride in London. It was designed by Dominique Holme, an east London artist, writer, and LGBTQ+ activist with a varied artistic background that includes tattoo artistry. Her design was selected through a competition conducted by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee.
“Seeing the design and the message of Protest and Pride on the coin itself was quite moving,” Holme stated. “Growing up in the 80s and 90s in the UK, I never saw this sort of positive LGBTQ+ representation, and I feel very proud to have worked on something that celebrates and commemorates such an historic moment for the LGBTQ+ community and the Pride movement so publicly.”
The coin has a unique equilateral curve heptagon (7-sided) shape. The reverse features Holme’s rainbow design and uses state-of-the-art color printing technology. The rainbows include lettering representing Pride in London’s values of Protest, Visibility, Unity, and Equality, with the Pride progression flag at the bottom.
The obverse features the fifth crowned portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II engraved by Jody Clark. The Queen is facing right and wearing the George IV State Diadem. The legend around reads: Elizabeth II Dei Gratia Regina Fidei Defensatrix (Elizabeth the Second by the Grace of God Queen Defender of the Faith).
The 50 Years of Pride coin weighs 8 grams and measures 27.3 mm in diameter. Five million of the 50p coins without color will enter circulation, with the aim of making the design accessible to all. The coin is also available as a Brillian Uncirculated colorized coin sold in a folder, a silver proof colorized coin with a mintage of 4,000, a gold coin with no color weighing 15.5 grams with a mintage of 200, and a gold proof Piedfort coin with no color weighing 31 grams with an edition of 50.
The silver proof colorized coin was also sold in a stamped first day cover with an edition of 750; the gold proof coin was sold in a stamped first day cover with an edition of 50 and the uncirculated coin with no color was sold in a stamped first day cover with an edition of 10,000.