2001 Victoria £5 Coin to Celebrates the Image of an Era
By Coinsanduk | Saturday, 1 February 2025
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, more than 2,000 million United Kingdom coins had been produced by the Royal Mint bearing her portrait.
For most of Queen Victoria's subjects, the depiction of their Queen on coins was one of the few ways in which they would have known what she looked like. And during her 64-year reign, the changing portraits on the coinage reflected the Queen as she moved from a young woman, to a mother of nine and a widow in mourning.
The Royal Mint produced a special £5 commemorative coin to mark the centenary of the end of the Victorian era. From Monday 21 May 2001, the coin was available at its face value of £5 directly from the Mint and also from post offices throughout the United Kingdom.
The coin's distinctive reverse design by artist Mary Milner Dickens features the iron frame of the south transept of Crystal Palace, site of the Great Exhibition of 1851. A 'V' of railway lines symbolises the grand steam age and wider travel as well as standing for Victoria.
Within the V is an image of Queen Victoria based on the portrait used on the famous Penny Black postage stamp.
The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was proposed by proposed by Rowland Hill and was first issued in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1840.
The portrait of Victoria was engraved by Charles Heath and his son Frederick, based on a sketch provided by Henry Corbould. Corbould's sketch was in turn based on the 1834 cameo-like head by William Wyon, which was used on a medal to commemorate the Queen's visit to the City of London in 1837.
The medal was issued by the Corporation of London to celebrate Victoria’s visit on the 9th of November 1837.
The obverse of the £5 coin features the acclaimed portrait of the present Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley.
Those who wanted an extra-special memento to mark this hugely influential period of British history had the chance to get versions of the coin in gold, silver and Brilliant Uncirculated (a higher quality finish than standard circulating coins) directly from the Royal Mint.