Five Pounds 1999 Millennium, Coin from United Kingdom - detailed information

The obverse shows the crowned mature head of Queen Elizabeth II facing right (her effigy known as the "Fourth Portrait"). The Queen wears the "Girls of Great Britain and Ireland" diamond tiara, a wedding gift from Queen Mary (Her Majesty's grandmother) in 1947 - which she also has on the Machin and the Gottwald portraits.

In small letters below the head, the artist's initials IRB (for Ian Rank-Broadley).

Around the effigy is the monarch's legend and the date: ELIZABETH · II · D · G REG · F · D · 1999. Translated from Latin: Elizabeth the Second, by the grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith 1999.

The reverse shows a representation of the dial of a clock with hands set at midnight (12 o'clock), with a map of the British Isles; the centre is at Greenwich.

The dates 1999 and 2000 are around above left and right respectively. Under the map in two lines, ANNO DOMINI (from Latin: Year of Our Lord).

Around below, the value and denomination FIVE POUNDS.

The designer's monogram JM (J underneath M, for Jeffrey Matthews) is in relief at the bottom of the map, over the letter O of POUNDS.

The circulation mintage figure of 5,396,300 supplied by the Royal Mint includes both commemorative crown coins of 1999; it is not clear how it is distributed between them. We have (simplistically) assumed equal mintages but please keep in mind that this is arbitrary and the mintage quoted here (2,698,150) is not real. Krause lists circulation mintage of 396,000.

Spink says that the edge inscription could be with a Serif or with a Sans Serif font, but does not list either of these as a variety.

The coin was not included in the year's mint sets, which had the Princess Diana commemorative £5 instead.

Technically speaking, the new Millennium did not happen on the change between 1999 and 2000, but in 2000/2001, which is probably why the Royal Mint re-issued the Millennium Crown in 2000 as well.