The design depicts the famous icon of Britain and British coinage as an Amazonian-like warrior, with a protective and serene watch over modern Britain’s liberty and values.

The new design has been launched to celebrate Britannia’s enduring presence as an important symbol of national identity in changing times.

Designer Suzie Zamit says: “Britannia is a really important British icon and I wanted to create a design that represents her as a symbol of British liberties and democracy. I felt it was important to portray Britannia as strong -- almost Amazonian -- and courageous, but not overly warlike, more peaceful and protective.”

The new 2010 Britannia coin series is launched in both gold and silver, available in an extended range of both individual coins and Proof sets. Suzie Zamit’s beautiful design is the first new Britannia design since 2008 and offers a fresh interpretation of the goddess, capturing the strong, courageous and watchful qualities of her spirit.

The new Britannia wears a Corinthian-style helmet, emphasising her warlike spirit and is accompanied by a lion to symbolise courage. However, Britannia’s serene gaze and the presence of an olive branch, also portrays the goddess as a protective defender of peace and modern British liberty and values. Her eastward looking gaze alludes to Britain’s role in the EU and its presence in Afghanistan.

Dave Knight, Director of Commemorative Coin at the Royal Mint, said: “Britannia is an enduring icon that has become an integral part of British coinage and heritage. She represents the strength of the British national identity and Suzie Zamit has captured this force in her new design. We are delighted to have created a coin that honours the history of British coins, whilst celebrating the future of modern Britain. Our 2010 Britannia Series is a great chance for us, along with the public, to celebrate this constant symbol of British success.”

Background and Video of the History of Britannia

• The image of Britannia is closely associated with British coinage (and used on the reverse of the circulating 50p coin until 2008). The Britannia Silver Bullion Coin was introduced in 1997.
• Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a symbol of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the first century BC Britannia came to be used for Great Britain specifically.
• In the second century, Roman Britannia came to be portrayed as a goddess, armed with a spear and shield and wearing a centurion’s helmet. A highly recognisable image that has survived until today.
• It was the Romans who, in recording their invasion and colonisation of Britain, first portrayed Britannia on their coins. Much later Britannia was to become a fitting symbol to grace the reverse of the copper coins of Charles II when her image symbolised her sovereignty of the seas.
• Universally recognised as a British icon, she has graced the coins of every British monarch since then. On the coinage of the present Queen, she featured on every pre-decimal penny and following decimalisation, was chosen to appear on the 50p coin until 2008.
• She was chosen to grace the new gold Britannia coinage introduced in 1987, and on the silver bullion coins introduced from 1997.

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Based on information from dealers and following market conditions I would forecast that the prices over the next years will keep an upward movement.

The above is supported by the increase of individuals and pension for diversification of assets and protection.

The Fenton Auction in London saw a jump in prices for high quality pieces; this will be followed by the market increasing for lesser quality items. The Internet is producing a new base of collectors who consider today’s price levels inexpensive. The UK has an old company that is introducing Numismatics as an Alternative Asset for inflation protection. The difference is today the companies would prefer and orderly market, prices not to run out of hand.

If you analyze historically from 1936 to date on the material through auctions and major dealers except for re-adjustment of prices of items that were miss-priced the compound growth for coins is +11.0% -12.5%. Average inflation during this period was 3.8%. This can vary if specific areas of British coins are not popular for a period.

Price comparisons between USA and UK coins, the gap is so great I can hope the US collector does not decide to collect UK material in a serious way – otherwise we will see price rises we have never seen in the UK market as it will be re-structured the US way which is different than the UK.[A comparison of values will increase many items several times] An example in one change will be that in the US the dealers will stock and support the market and hold much more stock at higher prices.

Below is a partial exerpt from Spink’s 2010 Standard Catelog of British Coins – PREFACE & MARKET TRENDS

“To some extent we appear to be recovering from the banking crisis and the resulting economic downturn and be more forward looking and positive again, however this is heavily due to the enormous amounts of cash injected into the economy by the government. This money is being spent in our economy and it would be extremely worrying if this policy did not have a direct impact. Only time will tell if this recovery is real but one thing that is fairly certain is that we will see rising inflation. These wider market conditions have prompted several interesting trends within the coin market as a whole, most noticeably that collectors are largely choosing not to sell their coins but to hold on to their assets which are seen to be continuing to increase in value.

This is quite understandable and is true in any rising market; sellers naturally want to try to sell at the peak. Another effect is that the more specialised collectors begin to diversify into areas in which they had previous! ly shown little or no interest. For example, long-time collectors of British crowns might decide that there is not enough new material to buy so might look to other denominations instead to feed their interest and continue to spend their budget on coins.

Furthermore, people who have been collectors for some time might put even more money into their collections as it makes little sense putting their money elsewhere and new collectors enter the market because the areas in which they would usually employ their capital were seen as too risky or low return such as property, shares and deposit accounts. It is also true that in a rising market one tends to feel justified in spending more money as your assets rise in value, in the same way that you might decide to have a new kitchen fitted if the value of your property increased significantly.”

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