New series of coins announced in the UK - Alphabetical 10 pence

In case anyone wants a new series to collect, these have just been "gazetted", the formal process of announcing new coin designs:
"
The design of the said ten pence gold, silver and nickel plated mild steel coins shall be as follows:

‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “· ELIZABETH II · DEI · GRA · REG · F · D · TEN PENCE ·” and the date of the year, and for the reverse either:

(a) a depiction of the Angel of the North and the letter A; or

(b) a view down a gun barrel with the James Bond logo and the letter B; or

(c) a cricketer striking a ball and the letter C; or

(d) a depiction of a double-decker bus and the letter D; or

(e) a depiction of an English breakfast and the letter E; or

(f) a depiction of fish and chips and the letter F; or

(g) a globe with a marked line to indicate the Greenwich Meridian and the letter G; or

(h) the badge of the Houses of Parliament and the letter H; or

(i) an ice cream cone and the letter I; or

(j) a depiction of the Gold State Coach and the letter J; or

(k) a depiction of King Arthur and the knights of the round table with the letter K; or

(l) a depiction of the Loch Ness Monster and the letter L; or

(m) a Mackintosh and the letter M; or

(n) a stethoscope and the letter N to denote the National Health Service; or

(o) a sprig of oak with an acorn and the letter O; or

(p) a postbox on a street and the letter P; or

(q) a depiction of people queuing through the letter Q; or

(r) a robin and the letter R; or

(s) a view of Stonehenge and the letter S; or

(t) a steaming tea pot and the letter T; or

(u) part of a Union Flag and the letter U; or

(v) a depiction of a village street and the letter V; or

(w) a spider’s web and the letter W; or

(x) a ship off the shore of a coast and the letter X; or

(y) a Yeoman Warder and a key with the letter Y; or

(z) a zebra crossing and the letter Z.

The coin shall have a grained edge."

The gazette entry can be seen at: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2965802

 

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Please please tell me these are all rendered in the style of Richard Scarry...

 

Could be interesting. Australia does this as well and some of them have nice designs

 

That’s it - I’m out. I was trying to keep up with all of the decimal issues in the UK, but this is just too ridiculous, and will no doubt cost me too much money.

 

Holy crap. I was just joking on the PCGS forum a couple days ago that the US Mint was going to produce "The 26 Letters Quarters™" once the national parks ones were done. They would be issued in order of their admission to the alphabet. Additional letters (ð, ñ, þ, for example) added to the alphabet during the program would be eligible for their own coins at the end of the program, but digraphs would not be recognized. If they did them on cents, they could undercut the replacement scrabble tile market, as they're the same size. It looks like the 10p is too big for a Scrabble tile.

 

With Lowly Worm making an appearance on all of them?

 

Just need to chop the rounded edges off the coin to make it square and correctly sized for a scrabble board.

 

Way too many issues in my opinion - pass. Then again, I will wait for the actual designs.

A few characters/subjects seem to be a little far-fetched, like the N and the X. What I do like are combinations where the spoken character sounds like the word for the depicted object: Q - queue, T - tea.

Christian

 

Ladies and gentlemen, a new collecting niche!

 

Are these going to circulate or just be sold to collectors? If the latter, I like the idea. If the former, it seems a bit overkill.

 

On previous form they will be in circulation but in sufficiently low numbers to drive the collectors into buying the scarcer ones from the RM at grossly inflated prices. It is a well tried marketing strategy, which has been used in coins for a while and was superbly evidenced by the Beanie-baby craze of 20 years ago.

If they are packeted only, I will leave them alone as I have given up handing large sums to the RM for the sake of it. If they are in circulation I don't think I will be able to resist putting one of each letter aside - after all, that is what collecting is all about! (The opportunity to make up words using them is bound to appeal to the younger collectors too.)

I don't believe there any any pictures of them out yet but some visitors to the Mint in Llantrisant have been shown examples by staff there, so I expect they will start appearing soon. As to design - I hope they are good.

The references to Richard Scarry and the Lowly Worm went completely over my head - some one please explain?

 

Wiki can.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowly_Worm
(Had to look that up myself ...)

 

I guess he was mostly a US phenomenon. He started producing books in the 1960s, I think. I don't remember them from my own childhood, but friends my same age certainly did, and his books were a big favorite of my own children (now teens) -- so much so that when I think "illustrated alphabet", his work comes immediately to mind.

 

For those that are interested the release of the these by the mint crashed their website from a huge demand. The couple times I tried to log on it was over an hour wait with more than 20k people in front of me so it looks like they successfully created a lot of buzz.

 

gott helfe mir.....

 

The 2018 Alphabet 10ps are already all over Ebay - sets from about £70 up to £200 (they cost £52 posted from the Royal Mail). Individual coins from £4 to £10 or more.

I will NOT be buying!

 

I agree with the above - if I were still living in the UK these might be fun to grab in circulation, but since I’m in the US, I have to order from the mint. But the Royal mint offerings are getting too varied and obsurd. I enjoy the historical commemoratives, but we’re also now in the third year of Beatrix Potter. I think I’ll be putting my decimal collection up for sale and keep me money and focus on medieval and ancients (perhaps keeping the occasional issue of interest to me)