As of today, September 9th, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II has become the longest-reigning British monarch in history. She passes her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who reigned for over 63 years.
There are a lot of staggering numbers associated with her reign, but I personally think one of the most staggering is how many coins her image has adorned. By one count, over 30 countries either currently or at one time had her image on the obverse of their circulation coins (and this doesn’t include the many countries which have had commemorative coins issued with her image). Over 63 years, the number of coins produced with her image must total in the billions.
During that time, there have been five different portraits used:
Mary Gillick Portrait (1953-1971)
Arnold Machin RA Portrait (1968-1985)
Raphael Maklouf Portrait (1985-1997)
Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS Portrait (1997-2015)
Jody Clark Portrait (2015-)
Long live the Queen of Coins!
1 Comment
Actually, there are 82 different political divisions which feature or have featured Queen Elizabeth II on their coinage. Also, the 5 portraits you have cited are the official UK portraits. There are (at least) 8 other official portraits that have been featured on coins of other countries. An interesting side note is that the only other Monarch to have lived long enough to have had 5 different official coin portraits is Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands.
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