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The Olympic Legacy – a collector’s Games…
A new Royal Mail Stamp for every Gold Medal Winner
– just one of the moments that made the Olympics a collector’s Games
23 million of us watched with a touch of sadness as the Olympic Flame was extinguished on Sunday night. As the flame died away, a giant Phoenix rose above the cauldron almost asking the question of what legacy will rise from the ashes of this great event.
Of course, there has been much coverage of how the Olympics will leave a sporting legacy for the United Kingdom but what of its collecting legacy?
January 1999 – an event that changed coin collecting forever
In January 1999 an event changed the coin collecting market forever – in the United States the first State Quarter was issued. It marked the beginning of a 50 coin programme that placed a quarter for every US State into circulation. Average annual quarter mintages reached 3.5 billion pieces – 135% more than the previous average pointing to the vast numbers of coins being collected out of circulation.
The legacy has been at the heart of a revitalised United States numismatic market that continues to see new mintages – often as high as 500,000 – repeatedly oversubscribed and a continued strengthening of the secondary market.
Our “State Quarter Moment”
The Olympics has provided the UK with its own State Quarter moment through the 29 Olympic Sports 50 pence coins, which have been released into circulation. Not even the Royal Mint would suggest that the Olympic 50p coins have had the same impact as the US State Quarters but over the weeks leading up to and during the Games, they have seen increasing popular interest amongst the man, woman and child on the street.
The Royal Mint 50p Collection.
Previously few people took more than a passing glimpse at their change (even though a number of different £2, £1 and 50p designs exist) but suddenly you see children begging parents of “that 50p”; waitresses wanting to swap the coins in their tips; people turning to social media to requests swaps of their duplicated coins.
The collecting fever that so often has been seen in the playgrounds of the country for Pokemon cards or Panini World Cup stickers is being repeated across the country, not just amongst kids but by adults of all ages.
With the success of the Games, the upcoming Paralympic frenzy and the increasing rarity of the circulating Olympic 50 pence coins, the collecting fervour of the British nation looks set to continue.
“We’re going to be on a stamp tomorrow”
If the 50 pence series started to capture a nation in the lead up to the Games, nothing compares to the excitement that Royal Mail’s Olympic offering has provided.
The stamp that got Kat Copeland & Sophie Hosking so excited straight after winning gold.
When almost the first thing an Olympian says on winning a gold medal is “We’re going to be on a stamp tomorrow”, you know that Royal Mail’s decision to issue Gold Medal winners stamps is a good one. Well that is exactly what Kat Copeland said to her Double Skulls partner, Sophie Hosking just moments after completing their epic Gold Medal winning competition.
And what a collection of stamps Royal Mail has gone on to produce, featuring all 29 Gold Medals and 42 Olympians, in a massive logistical feat each stamp was available the very next day from 500 Post Offices across the country.
Royal Mail successfully engaged a nation, with athletes being presented with blow ups of their stamps during TV interviews and the national newspapers providing consistent coverage.
The result has been a series of stamps that has seen more interest from the public than anything else since the very first stamps of Queen Elizabeth II – something that is beyond most of the population’s living memory.
So what of the legacy?
The Games have created thousands of new collectors. Some will stop but many others will continue. Some already are, choosing to select some of the more limited edition coins and stamps available to celebrate the Games.
Whatever their choice, those people who have stepped into the world of coins or stamps, perhaps for the first time, own a collectable for the future.
In years to come, children and grandchildren will look, touch and feel that moment when Great Britain held the Olympic Games. It will be the closest they get to being able to share the sense of achievement we have all felt over the last two weeks – a true sense of Great Britishness.
As such they create the sort of emotional value that so often forms the basis of a longer term physical value. Today’s mementos of a magnificent Games will represent a moment of history for future generations. By the time Britain hosts the Games again these will be the stuff of the Antiques Roadshow.
A Legacy for sport – we all hope so. A Legacy for collecting – without doubt.
For more information or to buy Olympic Stamps and Coins, click here
London 2012: most popular coins in over 40 years
The Royal Mint has revealed its London 2012 50p commemorative coins are proving more popular than any other UK circulating coin since decimalisation in 1971.
Since their release into general circulation in October 2010, The Royal Mint anticipates that more than £10 million worth, or over 70% of the coins, will be kept by people looking for a ‘free’ souvenir of London 2012. This is a huge increase on the standard loss of 2% to 3% on most other new circulating 50p coins which are removed by collectors or simply lost.
The Royal Mint has said it’s not unusual for special commemorative coins to be removed from circulation in this way but that the London 2012 coins would break all previous records.
Struck at the organisation’s headquarters in South Wales, the coins were designed by members of the public as part of a Royal Mint competition in which nearly 30,000 entries were submitted. They are the first ever UK coins to be designed by the public.
Each of the twenty-nine 50p coins features an Olympic or Paralympic sport on its reverse. These include sailing, cycling and basketball as well as less well-known sports such as handball and the Paralympic sport boccia.
The 50p coins are seen as a perfect souvenir to remember London 2012 due to their intrinsic value and quality which holds an interest and fascination for generations to come.
History of the Sovereign
The gold Sovereign is one of the most famous coins in the world. “Sovereign” is the name we give to a gold coin, originally of one pound sterling value. The first pound was struck in 1489 during the reign of Henry VII. It was a magnificent coin showing on the obverse the king sitting a throne, hence the name “Sovereign.”
The first Sovereigns
Henry VII ordered the Sovereign to be struck as part of the process to stabilise the English economy after decades of civil war. The King commissioned the great German engraver Alexander of Bruchsal to design the coin, showing Henry VII enthroned on the obverse and a Tudor rose enclosing a shield on the reverse. Its value was 240 silver pennies or twenty shillings. This was the first Sovereign – it was struck in 23 carat (95.83% fine) gold.
Debasement and replacement
King Henry VIII increased the sovereign’s value from 20 shillings to 22 shillings then 22 shillings and 6d. His son, Edward VI fixed the value at 20 shillings and also issued a half sovereign, a “Fine Sovereign” of 30 shillings and a double sovereign. After his death in 1553, his half sister, Queen Mary issued only a “Fine Sovereign” of 23¾ carats. Mary died in 1558 and her successor, Elizabeth I re-introduced a “standard sovereign” of 22 carats, worth 20 shillings, circulating alongside the fine sovereign. James I eliminated the fine sovereign and introduced a smaller, lighter sovereign of 22 carat fineness in 1604. This was to be the last sovereign struck in England for 213 years.
Unite, Laurel, Broad and Guinea
After the Sovereign there followed a succession of coins, of roughly sovereign value. First came the “Unite” of one pound value. It was so called in honour of the uniting of the kingdoms of England and Scotland. In 1612 the Unite was revalued at 22s before being replaced in 1619 by the “Laurel.” It survived the Civil War and was circulated during the Commonwealth, although a smaller 20 shillings coin, “the Broad”, was briefly issued in 1656. The Unite was issued for two years by the restored Charles II but was replaced by the machine-made “Guinea” (so called because it used gold from Guinea, West Africa) in 1668.
The Sovereign reigns supreme
In 1809 The Royal Mint was moved from the Tower of London to a new site on Tower Hill. In 1813 the last Guinea, with a value of 21 shillings, was struck by The Royal Mint but a huge transformation in how British coins were produced was about to take place. Using the new steam-powered minting machines of Boulton and Watt, the Mint could now produce superior coins more quickly and on an industrial scale. The Mint also now issued coins with a face value greater than their intrinsic value – the world’s first “token” coinage – and in 1817 came the return of the gold Sovereign after 213 years. On its reverse was the iconic engraving of St George and the Dragon by the brilliant Italian engraver Bendetto Pistrucci. This is essentially the modern gold Sovereign we know today, minted to 22 carat (91.7%) fineness, 22.05 mm in diameter and weighing 7.988 g.
The George & Dragon design continued to be used exclusively on the reverse of Sovereigns until 1825, when a shield design was introduced. The shield continued to be used intermittently throughout the reigns of George IV, William IV and Queen Victoria. As the British Empire spread across the globe, the sovereign went with it, accepted and trusted in even the most remote parts of the world. In 1855 the Sydney Branch of The Royal Mint was established. Uniquely, its Sovereigns (identified by the mintmark “S”) were completely different in design to the British originals. Other Royal Mints striking Sovereigns were opened at Melbourne, Perth and Ottawa, Canada.
A new life for the Sovereign
In 1917, under pressure of the war effort, The Royal Mint stopped production of the gold sovereign, replacing it with paper currency for everyday circulation. Although the Mint produced some Sovereigns in 1927 and proof sets in 1937 and 1953, this effectively marked the end of the Sovereign as currency. However, in 1957, in response to demand from collectors and investors, The Royal Mint issued bullion sovereigns almost every year until 1968, resuming regular production in 1974. In 1979 the Mint issued proof versions, which were so popular the practice continues to this day.
In 1989 the 500th anniversary of the sovereign was marked by a special commemorative proof issue, while the Queen’s 2002 Golden Jubilee saw the shield design used, in modified form, on the reverse of a Sovereign for the first time since 1887. Most recently, the 2012 Sovereign featured a new reverse design by Paul Day to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Over the past decade bullion and proof Sovereigns have proved a sound investment. As long as there’s a pound, it seems likely we’ll still have a Sovereign.
