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New coins that feature a remastered portrait of Henry VIII have been unveiled by the Royal Mint.
The coins mark the fifth coin in the Mint’s British monarchs collection and the second in the collection to feature a king from the House of Tudor.
Henry VIII reigned from 1509 to 1547 and according to the Mint, he’s nickname was “old Coppernose”.
During his era, coinage was debased, seeing the combination of the precious metal content of a coin with a more common metal, such as copper.
Coins would be struck with an increasing amount of copper with a thin layer of silver applied.
But the layers eventually wore away, particularly around the nose of Henry VIII’s forward-facing portrait, the Mint said.
The Mint added that the debasement of coinage affected the quality of Henry VIII’s portrait, making it one of the most difficult of the original portraits to reproduce for the collection.
Remastering the coins saw the Mint’s design team combine craftsmanship with innovative technology, including using scanners to examine the original coin.
The design team regularly liaised with the Royal Mint Museum to ensure that the Henry VIII coin design had been remastered faithfully, with clarity added to the modern version of the original coin.
Royal Mint unveils coins with remastered portraits of Henry VIII
The remastered Henry VIII coin design depicts what it would have looked like once the coin was struck, before it lost its clarity, the Mint said.
Rebecca Morgan, director of collector services at the Royal Mint said: “Despite the challenge caused by the quality of Henry VIII’s original portrait, the effigy has been faithfully recreated in fine detail using state-of-the-art technology and numismatic processes.
“We are delighted to add Henry VIII as the fifth addition to the popular British monarchs collection.”
Chris Barker, information and research manager at the Royal Mint Museum, said: “Due to the debasement, good examples of coins from this period of Henry VIII’s reign are rare to find, meaning that the definition of the reverse and obverse designs have been worn away through time.
“The coin used to recreate the King’s portrait was a testoon, one of the coins that would have been affected by the debasement.”
The Royal Mint’s British monarchs series spans four Royal houses – Tudor, Stuart, Hanover and Windsor, remastering designs in high definition.
Prices for the Henry VIII coin range from £99.50 for a silver £2 denomination coin to £12,500 for a £500 denomination gold proof coin.
