British coinage gets a make-over

I’ve just seen the news that the Royal Mint has revealed new designs for British coins. The designer of the coins is 26-year-old Matthew Dent.

The new designs have been chosen via an open competition which was widely publicised in the national media in August 2005 and attracted 4,000 entries. The winning designer is 26-year-old Matthew Dent, originally from Bangor who now lives and works in London as a graphic designer.

After exploring a number of different options, Matthew Dent finally developed the heraldic theme, taking the greatest heraldic device ever used on coinage – the Royal Arms.

Somewhat inevitably there has been a fair amount of stage horror in reaction to the new designs (just read the comments on the Mint’s site), but I think they look fantastic, a great blend of the traditional and the modern. The design in formation as seen above is clever, but each coin taken alone as below is striking.  The idea of showing a single design motif over several surfaces gives each coin an almost abstract appearance. I think it’s a brilliantly forward-looking design, and I can’t wait to see them for real.

It must be especially exciting for the designer, Matthew, that his designs will now be carried around in the pockets of every person in Britain for many years to come.

via A Welsh View