The Royal Mint launched The Great Engravers series in November 2019 with a specific purpose: reviving the most celebrated motifs in British numismatic history as modern bullion releases. Its debut design, Una and the Lion, was originally created in 1839 by the Royal Mint's Chief Engraver William Wyon for Queen Victoria's five-pound coronation coin — long regarded as one of the most beautiful coin designs the Royal Mint has ever produced. The 2019 bullion revival struck the design in 0.9999 fine gold and offered it across an unusually wide range of formats: 1 oz, 2 oz, and 5 oz gold proofs, kilo gold formats, and a 2 oz silver proof, giving collectors far more size options at launch than most series offer even after years of production.
Unlike every other series on this site, Great Engravers isn't built around an animal, heraldic figure, or national symbol — it's explicitly a historical-design-revival program, meaning a new buyer's interest is less about collecting dates and more about owning a modern strike of a specific, celebrated piece of 19th-century coin artistry. Because the series launched with an unusually broad size range (1 oz through 5 oz and kilo formats, plus a 2 oz silver version), deciding on size first is more important here than with a typical single-size bullion coin.
The dates serious Great Engravers collectors specifically chase — the rest of the run trades close to melt value.
The Royal Mint launched The Great Engravers series in November 2019, reviving William Wyon's 1839 Una and the Lion design — originally struck for Queen Victoria's five-pound coronation coin and long regarded as one of the most celebrated coin designs in British numismatic history — as a modern bullion release for the first time.
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Start tracking freeThe original 1839 design by William Wyon, created for Queen Victoria's five-pound coronation coin and long regarded as one of the Royal Mint's most celebrated coin designs — revived as a modern bullion release in 2019.
An unusually wide range at launch: 1 oz, 2 oz, and 5 oz gold proofs, larger kilo gold formats, and a 2 oz silver proof — more size variety than most series offer even after years of production.
No — it's a historical-design-revival program rather than a themed annual release, built around reviving celebrated motifs from British numismatic history rather than issuing a new design each year.