British Gold Year Of The Monkey

In 2016, Great Britain added the third coin to their series of bullion coins commemorating the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Monkey. The British Gold Year of the Monkey coin is the third in the series of coins, but the monkey is the ninth animal in the traditional Shēngxiào (Chinese zodiac) tradition. The legend goes that an individual born in the year of the monkey is likely optimistic, intelligent, adventurous, and quick-witted.

Only 8,888 coins in The British Gold Year of the Monkey series were printed with a face value of GBP 100. The obverse design of the coin is credited to the works of British Royal Mint employee, Jody Clark, who age-adapted the Queen’s effigy on the obverse based on the commonwealth coinage image first created by sculptor, Ian Rank-Broadley. Like all previous British Lunar coins, the reverse design is the work of Wuon-Gean Ho, a renowned British artist. Besides the Queen’s effigy facing to the right on the obverse, the inscription, “ELIZABETH·II·D·G REG·FID·DEF·100·POUNDS·” surrounds the Queen’s image while the inscription, “J.C” is right below the neckline. The inscription, “D·G REG·FID·DEF” is the short form for “Dei Gratia Regina Fidei Defensor” in Latin. Its equivalent in English is, “Queen by the grace of God, defender of the faith”.

The reverse contains two monkey images on a tree that appear to be “playing” (one larger monkey on the foreground and a smaller one in the background). There are two lines of inscriptions above the monkey images. The first one reads, “YEAR OF THE MONKEY 2016” while the second one reads, “1 OZ FINE GOLD 999.9”.

The British Gold Year of the Monkey coin is 31.21g heavy, contains 31.103g of 24-carat gold (1 t/oz, 0.9999 fine), and measures 32.69 millimeters wide. Investors and collectors are not charged VAT or the Capital Gains Tax for trading in this Bullion coin. The coin is exclusively minted by the ISO9001 mint certified British Royal Mint. The British Royal Mint is a private limited company wholly owned by Her Majesty’s Government, which has existed for more than a millennium, as it was established in 886 AD.