2023 UK Tolkien £2 coin

The back of the coin looks good.


Photo © The Royal Mint

The 2023 commemorative sets will be available in a range of precious metal and base proof finishes, from Jan 3 on the Royal Mint’s website, with prices starting from £50.

A set of silver proof coins will be available for £311 and a gold set can be bought for £7,845.

A platinum set can be purchased for £10,390.

Each of the coins will also be available individually in 2023, the Mint said.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-fami ... ng-charles-commemorative/

Royal Mint - https://www.royalmint.com/annual-sets/ ... &hss_channel=tw-189105251

Wow, it looks beautiful. :)

Annnnd they're already showing up on the 2nd hand market

I think the coin by itself will be about £10 plus postage from the Royal Mint and I think they ship worldwide.

...would definitely be nicer with the portrait of Tolkien rather than Charles

Some more info from the Royal Mint

Tolkien passed away in 1973 although, 50 years later, the father of modern fantasy fiction still has a palpable influence on the genre. His trademark monogram, encircled by a runic pattern skilfully created by the artist David Lawrence, will forever grace this commemorative UK £2 coin. ‘NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST’, a quote from the poem ‘The Riddle of Strider’, which features in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, serves as the coin’s edge inscription.

“JRR Tolkien’s monogram is an elegant creation: a mysterious symbol redolent of alchemical signs and magical scripts. It also had a certain gravitas. I quickly saw that this had to be central to the design. Something ring-like and circular was obviously needed to contain and frame the monogram.

“I created several roundels to contain the monogram. Eventually, these were whittled down to abstract shapes; versions containing tortuous intertwined serpents were interesting, but they were somehow distracting and lacked gravitas. I created the abstract shapes from scratch, choosing a couple of fonts that have a slightly quirky, magical look, whilst remaining fully legible.”

David Lawrence

Never heard of the poem officially being called "The Riddle of Strider", don't think it really has a name. He could have used Runes instead of abstract shapes, but I think he has done a very good job overall.

https://www.royalmint.com/annual-sets/ ... -and-work-of-jrr-tolkien/

Trotter wrote:

Never heard of the poem officially being called "The Riddle of Strider", don't think it really has a name.

Ya, that's completely made up.

It's called The Riddle of Strider in the "Songs and Verse" index that used to be included in the back of LotR, I think compiled by Baillie.

ibid wrote:

It's called The Riddle of Strider in the "Songs and Verse" index that used to be included in the back of LotR, I think compiled by Baillie.

What volume/edition is that in?