Royal Mint to commemorate nuptials with official £5 coin

The Royal Mint is to commemorate Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding with an official £5 coin.

The couple has approved the designs, which show the pair in profile facing each other, as has the Queen whose image appears on the reverse.

The coin is only the second produced by the Royal Mint to mark a royal wedding – the first was a 20p item made for the nuptials of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1981.

A Royal Mint official said: “The official UK royal wedding coin has been designed by Mark Richards, a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

“Mark’s design was selected after an invitation-only tender process involving British designers. Their submitted designs were presented to the Royal Mint Advisory Committee which is chaired by Sir Christopher Frayling and is made up of experts in art, design, history and heraldry.

“Following the selection of Mark’s design, it was then sent to Prince William for approval. With Prince William’s full approval received, the coin design was submitted to the Chancellor and finally to Her Majesty the Queen for approval.”

Last year the Royal Mint produced its first coin to mark a royal engagement but drew criticisms from some who claimed the likeness of Ms Middleton was unflattering.

An artist’s illustration of how the coin will look has been released and the item, which has a sale price of £9.99, is available for pre-order from the Royal Mint’s website.

The Royal Mint has produced many medals to mark royal anniversaries and weddings over the centuries but the new £5 coin is only the second to commemorate royal nuptials.

It will be presented at a meeting of the Privy Council on March 16 when it will become official UK tender. The Royal Mint states on its website: “Public interest in this great event is already huge, and building every day, so we are anticipating massive demand for these official commemorative coins.”