A William coin? We need more hair apparent
HIS thinning locks have prompted many ‘Royal heir’ jokes, but Prince William’s baldness caused a crisis for Royal Mint chiefs over the design of a commemorative coin, it can be revealed.
While William has won praise for embracing the Windsor family tradition for male pattern baldness by refusing to cover up his thinning thatch, officials at the Royal Mint wanted to give him ‘more hair’ on the coin to celebrate four generations of the Royals.
The Prince’s hairloss makeover was the subject of discussion among members of the advisory committee on the Design of Coins, Medals and Decorations which oversees the production of commemorative coins on behalf of the Royal Mint.
The minutes for a meeting held at Buckingham Palace on June 20, 2017, state: ‘It was suggested that in any revised design Prince William be given slightly more hair.’
The committee’s decision is likely to come as a surprise to William. He has often joked about his thinning locks and, on a walkabout, once told a hairstylist: ‘I don’t have much hair. I can’t give you much business.’
Six months after the committee met he went one step further and famously appeared in public sporting a closely cropped style.
The committee’s minutes were obtained by this newspaper under freedom of information laws and show that its members are particularly sensitive when it comes to designs involving the Royal Family. In 2016, the committee was preoccupied with plans for a coin to commemorate the Prince of Wales’s 70th birthday last year. In a September meeting, members complained that one design left Charles looking like US President Lyndon Johnson. It had ‘a few too many lines on the forehead’ and ‘jowls that were on the heavy side’, they said.
By the time the design was discussed again in December, members had agreed to ‘remove/ soften the detail of the jowl’.
The wording on Royal coins has also caused problems. In 2016, designs for a coin to celebrate the Queen and Prince Philip’s upcoming platinum wedding anniversary had to be changed when members decided the inscription ‘married life has joined them in happiness’ might be preferable to ‘married love has joined them in happiness’ because the latter ‘called to mind a book by Marie Stopes’, a reference to the family planning campaigner.
The committee also appears to be wary of designs which embrace popular culture. One complained that a coin to commemorate the D-Day landings ‘had a rather unfortunate association with the opening of Dad’s Army’.