Behind the Idea: Royal Mint coin redesign

Greg Quinton is Creative Partner at branding and design agency The Partners. He's also D&AD's education chairman.

Quinton has been well and truly charmed by the redesign of the reverse side (tails, if you’re flipping one) of UK coins in circulation these days.

“In these tough economic times we’ve all have to watch our pennies.  The Royal Mint has turned it into a small pleasure,’ says Quinton.

The first redesign in almost 40 years, the Royal Mint says they’re “the biggest change in coinage history since decimalisation” – no mean feat. They used to make rare appearances in our wallets but are everywhere now.

Each coin between the penny and the fifty pence piece features part of an image.  They can be put together like a puzzle to create the Shield of the Royal Arms.  The pound coin completes the set with the full shield. The innovative design by Matt Dent was awarded a D&AD Black Pencil last year.

Dent wanted to create something that people could participate with if they want to. “I could imagine the appeal for kids messing with them in school as much as for folks in a pub,’ he says.

Quinton points out that coins tend look the same all over the world, because they’re designed as a single circular image.  “Matt has bravely bucked this trend by designing them as a total entity,’ he adds.  “The challenge is remembering to keep hold of the ones you’ve got to create the full, wonderfully detailed, picture."

Dent jumped through more hoops than most to get his designs approved.  He first entered the work into a Royal Mint competition. His winning idea was chosen by the Royal Mint’s Advisory Committee  from 4,000 entries.  It even had to be approved by The Chancellor (then Gordon Brown) and the Queen.

As Dent hoped, the new look coins have made a big impression.  He was even sent drawings by 30 Cambridgeshire primary school students shortly after they launched.  The class seven children wanted him to see their own takes on coin design.

Quinton thinks that great design is often perceived as expensive, flashy or pretentious. “Matt has shown that for the cost of one penny anyone can own a design classic,” he says.

“As for me,’ adds Dent.  “I'm still as excited as ever when one turns up in my change.”

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This has me thrilled from the moment i first see 2 of the coins! Just fiddling about with some of my change when i first noticed it, did not know anything about the 'Shield of the Royal Arms' at this time, but chatting to a few mates in the local pub had me convinced there was a limited edition set of coins in circulation that made a picture! Meeting my father on on our weekly tradition, whilst sitting in the cafe having breakfast, it came up in conversation, he too had said he had come across these coins, and now the race was on hahaha!.... who would be the first to get the whole set and complete it, many a phone calls and txt were exchanged, laughing if we had come across another section! Then one fine morning whilst travelling to work on the train reading my paper, i came across a notice from 'The Royal Mint' they had the collection set for sale.. of course i had to purchase it for me and my old dad, but it did put an end to the race!
Great set of coins in honor to our land, superb! and something completey different, wonder if they have ever done this before with our sterling coins.

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Great story! Really fantastic and inspiring work. I wrote up a blog post about Matt Dent two years ago when the Royal Mint first announced the new coinage:
http://refreshbox.com/2008/04/continuity-through-change.php

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