Description
The Royal Mint is commemorating the ten heraldic beasts that line the Moat Bridge of Hampton Court Palace. Created at the behest of Henry VIII, the beasts symbolise the legitimacy of the king’s rule by portraying his regal ancestry. The ten are evenly split, with five belonging to the king and five representing his third wife, Jane Seymour. The coins in the collection honour each of the ten beasts that symbolise the mighty Tudor dynasty.
What are the Queens Beasts?
The Queen’s Beasts are ten legendary creatures who symbolise the historic ancestry of Her Majesty The Queen. As a set of ten statues, each statue bears the shield or crest of the family they represented. They all stood guard outside Westminster Abbey in 1953 during the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. As The Queen’s Beasts Collection, their mythical stories have been reimagined for the twenty-first century in a series of ten popular coin designs by the celebrated designer Jody Clark.
