Drawing the Queen for loose change

robbie Hodges meets the man behind the design of the royal Mint’s latest coin

Jody Clark, 36, a coin designer at the royal Mint, can still remember the day in 2014 when he beat his colleagues in t he biggest competition of his life: to design the portrait of the Queen that would be stamped on all British coins. ‘I thought I’d give it a go and I’m so glad I did,’ he says.

He was given a photograph of the Queen upon which he was supposed to base his design, but decided to find a different, less formal portrait to work from. ‘I gathered shots from the internet instead,’ he says. ‘I wanted to find one where the Queen looked more relaxed, in a bit more of a natural setting.’

The portrait of the Queen previously used on coins was designed by sculptor Ian rank-broadley in 1998, but since 2015, every coin has been stamped with Clark’ s portrait, including the brand new 12-sided pound coin, which went into circulation on 28 March.

Today Clark still works as one of the eight coin designers at the royal Mint in llantrisant, South Wales, and he is currently working on a series of engravings entitled‘ the Queen’ s beasts’, which will be struck into silver and gold proof coins.

First he sketches an image using pencil and paper, then transposes it on to a computer using art cam, a programme also used for designing woodwork. ‘It’s like sculpting clay ,’ explains Jody. He swipes t he sketch to create depth, turning the flat portrait into a three-dimensional one.

Next he sends the digital portrait to a milling machine that is fitted with a tiny drill head measuring one micron (a millionth of a metre). This is used to en grave the die–effectively a stamp made of soft steel to impress the portrait onto all the coins.

Next Clark and his team do a test run. ‘We sit together as the first sample coins arrive to make sure they’re up to standard. That’s pretty exciting to see,’ he says.

When he’s happy with the die, the coins are stamped in bulk – the die can strike up to 350 coins a minute, and has a lifespan of 300,000 coins before it needs to be replaced.

‘Producing the coins is a long process,’ says Clark. ‘I’m used to it now… but it’s still pretty cool to see my designs on loose change.’ royalmint.com

Above Jody clark won a competition to design the portrait of the Queen that now features on all British coins, and still gets a thrill when he sees it on loose change