Golden Jubilee 2002 £5 Coin
By Coinsanduk | Wednesday, 5 March 2025
The Royal Mint released in 2002 a new £5 Jubilee crown, commemorating the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen.
The obverse of the coin features an elegant equestrian portrait of the Queen, in keeping with the design of crowns struck previously to celebrate the Queen's Coronation in 1953 and her Silver Jubilee in 1977. The accompanying inscription, Amor Populi Praesidium Reg, conveys the happy notion that the love of the people is the Queen's protection.
The coin's reverse bears a mature and reflective profile portrait of the Queen. Like the obverse it was chosen by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee following a design competition.
Sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley has won the accolade of designing and modelling both sides of this Jubilee keepsake. This was not his first commission for the United Kingdom coinage, having won competitions to design the new effigy of the Queen for use on the UK coinage from 1998 and, in 2000, the Queen Mother's 100th birthday crown.
The £5 coin was available in an illustrated presentation folder and struck to Brilliant Uncirculated Standard (a higher quality than standard circulating coins) and the circulating coin was available from May 2002.
It is a real honour for the Royal Mint to be involved in the Jubilee celebrations. We hope that the official Jubilee coin will provide a lasting memory of this once-in-a-lifetime occasion, so significant for British history.
Alan Wallace, Director of Collector Coin at the Royal Mint
To further celebrate the Jubilee year, The Royal Mint's 2002 sovereign changed its reverse design to honour the year of Her Majesty the Queen's Golden Jubilee. The new design, appearing for one year only, replaced the classic St George and the Dragon.
The Queen's Commonwealth tours for the Jubilee celebrations began in March. The official summer tour of the United Kingdom took place between 1 May and 5 August, during which the Queen visited over a dozen different regions across the country. Activity was, however, focus on the weekend of 1 to 4 June, which included a National Holiday and a National Service of Thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral.
Before, during, and after the jubilee year, souvenirs were created, monuments unveiled, and public works named in commemoration of the royal event.
A Golden Jubilee Medal was also created in 2002 for the 50th anniversary of the Queen accession. Two different designs were made.
The Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal was awarded in Canada to nominees who contributed to public life and to active personnel in the British Armed Forces and Emergency Personnel who had completed 5 years of qualifying service.
The medal was not awarded by New Zealand. However, it was accorded a place in the country's order of wear to accommodate British citizens who had received the medal in the UK and subsequently joined the New Zealand Defence Force.
