The Queen's Beasts The White Lion 1/4 Oz 2020

The Queen´s Beasts - White Lion of Mortimer - 1/4 Oz

The 1/4 Oz (7.78 g) gold investment coin in purity of the purest 99.99% gold issued by the Royal British Mint in 2020 is the eighth coin in the "The Queen's Beasts" series, which is dedicated to the ten heraldic animals of Queen Elizabeth II - the Lion of England, the Griffin of Edward III., the Falcon of the Plantagenets, the Black Bull of the Dukes of Clarence, the Yale of Beaufort, the White Lion of Mortimer, the White Hound of Richmond, the Red Dragon of Wales, the Unicorn of Scotland and the White Horse of Hanover.

The coin shows on its reverse the motif of a lion holding an armorial shield bearing the heraldic rose en Solei (rose-en-soleil). The white rose surrounded by sun rays was adopted as his personal emblem by Edward IV, the first King of the House of York, on his accession to the throne. It was created by combining two heraldic emblems. The white rose of York represented the new king and the shining sun referred to his ancestor Richard II. The White Rose en Solei also appeared on the Great Seal of Richard III and George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II, at the time he used the title Duke of York. The rim of the motif is decorated with the inscription "WHITE LION OF MORTIMER", details of weight, fineness, year of issue and the initials of the designer "JC".
The Queen's Beasts is a series of ten heraldic sculptures created by sculptor James Woodford to mark the Queen's coronation in 1953. Their stylized form for the coin series was created by the talented engraver Jody Clark.
Unlike the wild lion of England, the white lion of the Mortimers is depicted as an uncrowned, seated beast with its tail lowered and claws retracted. This pose represents loyalty and discipline, important qualities of a king. The white lion as the shield-bearer of the royal arms was used several times by Edward IV, in reference to his Mortimer ancestors. This family had already claimed the English throne during the reign of Richard II. The deposed king appointed Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, heir to the crown. The Mortimer succession was ignored and Henry Bolingbroke of the House of Lancaster was placed on the throne in 1399 as Henry IV. of England. The dynastic claim to the throne passed to the House of York in 1425, this was by the marriage of Anne Mortimer and Richard of Konisburg, son of the 1st Duke of York. This union gave their descendants a greater claim to the throne than the Lancastrians. Two grandsons and one great-grandson of Anne Mortimer - Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III - ascended the English throne. Power struggles between the Yorks and the Lancastrians culminated in a century-long civil war, the War of the Roses.

The obverse shows a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, the fifth and definitive coin portrait of the Queen. This is followed by the artist's initials "J.C.", the inscriptions "ELIZABETH II. D.G. REG.F.D." and the face value.

This product is part of the following product sets: