| Around the world, coin collecting is a growth | | | | A vast arrange of coin designs have been |
| industry. With more and more people nervous | | | | produced at the Royal Mint over the years and |
| about the abilities of traditional banks to protect | | | | one interesting feature of the company is that |
| the true value of our cash, many people feel it is | | | | periodically they have competitions for people to |
| safer to invest in the more stable precious metal | | | | design a new coin or set of coins. A competition |
| stocks or in collectable coins such as limited edition | | | | was run in 2005 to find a new set of designs for |
| coinage or gold and silver sovereigns. | | | | the whole set of British coinage from the 10 |
| The great thing about collecting coins is that their | | | | pence piece up to and including the 50 pence |
| value comes from both the precious metal | | | | piece. This competition was open to absolutely |
| content of the coin and the rarity or desirability of | | | | everyone and as a result they received many |
| the coin design. | | | | hundreds of entries. The final winner Mathew Dent |
| The United Kingdom Royal Mint is the company | | | | used the motif of the shield of Royal Arms, with |
| which is set up to manufacture all British coins. It | | | | one section of the coat placed on the back of |
| is a government owned company and as well as | | | | each coin, so that when all the coins are laid out |
| producing UK coins it also produces coins for | | | | next to each other the complete coat of arms |
| other countries around the world as well as | | | | can be seen. This design was seen as an original |
| making commemorative medals. | | | | reinterpretation of the heraldic device. |