Prince William honoured with Royal Mint £5 coin to mark his 40th birthday
23 May 2022, 14:39
The Duke of Cambridge appears on the commemorative coin with a 'candid pose of determination'.
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Prince William, 39, is being honoured with a £5 coin by Royal Mint to mark his upcoming 40th birthday on June 21.
The Duke of Cambridge has never featured on a UK coin stuck by the Royal Mint before, making the tribute even more special.
The coin features a portrait of Kate Middleton's husband alongside the numbers '40' and the initial 'W', while his grandmother, the Queen, appears as usual on the opposite side.
According to the Royal Mint, they created a portrait of Prince William with "a candid pose of determination, gazing ahead to the future".
The portrait appears to be inspired by a photograph of the father-of-three at the Queen's Birthday Party in June 2018, held at the UK Ambassador's residence in Jordan.
The beautiful coin was crafted by engraver Thomas T Docherty, who has been with the Royal Mint for 17 years now.
Talking about the project, Thomas said: "When I heard the coin was announced, I instantly knew that I wanted to submit a design for it.
"I’ve never submitted a design for a portrait before, although I’ve always wanted to. I’ve been at The Royal Mint for 17 years now but even only a few years ago, I wouldn’t have felt entirely comfortable with tackling a portrait of this magnitude.
"The opportunities to submit designs for portraits have arisen throughout my career but I’ve never had the confidence to tackle them."
He continued to explain: "I knew how I wanted to portray His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge from the outset; I wanted to create a fresh, stylized and dynamic image. I didn’t want it to be this kind of tight, precise or polished model. I wanted to give the design an element of life and movement so utilised a more sculptural approach, which would help capture His Royal Highness in this candid and authentic pose.
“It was actually a stroke of luck that the image we were given to base our designs on was one I had already chosen during my research, which made me more excited to be involved in the project. A lot of the images I researched had this similar head tilt and angle to the face, which created an aura of pride and nobility. A three-quarter angle always felt like it would create a more dynamic portrait rather than a traditional side-on profile.”
The collection is now available to order from the Royal Mint website, with prices ranging from £13 to a whopping £4,775.
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