United Kingdom Queen’s Beasts Gold Coins

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United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins represent an exciting new British coin series of 10 designs over as many years. Brought to you by the historical and highly regarded Royal Mint, these coin themes and designs are appropriately based on the ten heraldic beasts which stood guard over Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation over 60 years ago. These were sculpted for the Westminster Abbey ceremony by James Woodford in 1953. The 10 beasts are originally taken from the King's Beasts of infamous English King Henry VIII which still adorn the moat bridge at his beloved Hampton Court Palace today.

United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins Background and History

United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins are a series of ten heraldic animals including mythical and ancient creatures such as the lion, griffin, bull, falcon, yale, dragon, greyhound, unicorn, and horse. Jody Clark is the talented Royal Mint Coin Designer who created the portraits of these real and fantastical creatures for the coin series. The first in this interesting and unique series was the Barbary Lion. This national symbol for England has a long lasting historical connection with the monarchs of the nation going back to the early Middle Ages. King Richard the Lionheart was the first British monarch referred to as a “lion,” though the lion symbol appeared in royal heraldry throughout England even before his brief but incredibly popular and memorable ten year reign in the last years 12th century. Royal lions appear everywhere throughout Britain today, from the national monuments in Trafalgar Square to the devices of major English sporting clubs as with the National Cricket Team of England.

Among the oldest continuously operating institution on planet earth is the renowned British Royal Mint. It started striking coins for first England and then later on Great Britain (once it came into being) more than 1,100 years ago. This tradition of minting coins in England hails back to the time of the early Anglo Saxons in the 650s A.D. Moneyers in London were already making coins for the kingdom of Essex there by the middle of the seventh century. The London Mint became the official seat for the Royal Mint in 886 under the reign of King Alfred the Great, though other mints continued to exist and operate throughout England in those days. The London Mint found a long-term home in the Tower of London in 1279 where it remained in operation for an astonishing 500 years through almost the year 1800. Even legendary physicist icon and founding father Sir Isaac Newton is connected with this venerable coining institution. He was Warden of the Mint in 1696 and then Master of the Mint until his death in 1727. He made the critically important choice to take England from the old Silver standard (hence the currency name of Pound Sterling) to the then up and coming Gold Standard in 1717.

Today's British Royal Mint produces both coins and military medals for the United Kingdom as well as other countries throughout the Commonwealth of Nations. This Royal Mint has withstood the test of time and stood witness to countless memorable kings and queens throughout over a thousand years of British history. It has lived on through numerous political struggles and turmoil, technological and industrial revolutions, and scientific and medical breakthroughs which the nation has been proud to both take credit for and lead for over three centuries.

United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins Physical Characteristics

United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins come in only a single one troy ounce size with an impressive 100 British pounds sterling face value denomination.

Coin Design

The front side of coins is called the “obverse.” United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins portray the portrait of beloved British and Commonwealth monarch and Head of State Queen Elizabeth II. The coin also depicts the face value of 100 Pounds.

The coin “reverse” is the rear side of coins. The United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins' reverse is destined to change each year of the ten year series. The first year showcased the fabled and majestic British lion. This beast proves to be the crowned golden lion of historic England that has supported the Royal Arms since James I the Stuart monarch ascended the throne of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in 1603. The lion bears a shield that features the United Kingdom's coat of arms as they have existed since the days of Queen Victoria from the time of her coronation in 1837. On the last and first quarters of this majestic heraldic shield are the lions of England. The second quarter of the shield is the the Scottish lion. The third quarter of the shield contains the harp of Ireland to represent today's Northern Ireland. On this side of the coin is also found the year of mintage, metal weight, and metal purity.

Specifications

These coins are struck in only the single size of one troy ounce. Their dimensions are as follows:

• Mass: 1 troy oz
• Diameter: 32.69 mm
• Thickness:  2.7 mm
• Purity: 99.99% gold

United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins Pricing

United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins have an impressive standard face value of 100 British pounds sterling. All of the coins in this series are legal tender in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which means that you could spend them on daily needs in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. No one would ever do this in practice because their intrinsic value is considerably higher. The intrinsic value is heavily based on their one ounce gold content and the accompanying spot price of gold.

It is this intrinsic value that determines the market value mostly. There is also a considerable premium of around $55 per coin over the spot price of gold. The values of portfolios which contain them are derived from this relevant intrinsic value. These coins trade at premiums because of the considerable expenses of producing and distributing them which the Royal Mint incurs. Market values of such coins rises and falls in lock step with world gold prices every day the world gold markets are open and trading. You can follow the live gold prices of right now by clicking over to our homepage.

Can IRA Accounts Contain United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins?

Everyone considering purchasing these United Kingdom Queen's Beasts Gold Coins for retirement purposes wants to know if they may buy them with their IRA account funds. It is in the purvey of the Internal Revenue Service as to whether or not any coins can be legally included in these retirement vehicles. The IRS employs a strict dual standard system of approval based on both the gold purity of the coins and their collectability nature to decide which you are allowed to purchase and hold in your self directed IRAs.

To open up this account in the first place, you will have to pre-fund the account with at least $5,000 worth of IRS sanctioned bullion gold and/or silver. Once you have done this, rest assured that later purchases can be added starting at only $1,000 more in such coins and bars. If you happen to have a more traditional form of IRA account, it is easy to roll it over to a precious metals IRA. Once your IRA account administrator receives your new bullion shipment, they will be required by IRS regulations to transship it to an approved third party depository which will vault and safe keep your bullion holdings on your behalf.

Even though these gold coins meet the minimum purity standard of .995 fineness set by the IRS with their excessive and impressive .9999 purity levels, they are not allowed to be included in IRA accounts. This is because their collectibility premium is quite high at over $50 more than the price of spot per gold coin. Even though you can not add Her Majesty's Queen's Beasts Gold Coins to your IRA retirement vehicles, you should still consider them for other types of retirement and investment portfolios. You can purchase them directly from the Royal Mint website or buy them from any reputable coin or jewelry dealer who stocks them in Europe or from around the world.

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