Royal Mint celebrates 120 years of Peter Rabbit

The Royal Mint revealed today a commemorative coin marking 120 years since the first publication of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, developed in collaboration with Penguin Ventures.

The Royal Mint’s own Ffion Gwillim created the design using original storybook illustrations, settling on an image showing Peter Rabbit surrounded by wildflowers, bees, and butterflies.

“As the coin is a celebration of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, I knew from the beginning that I wanted the coin to be cheerful and have a celebratory feel. I took inspiration from the colourful floral illustrations seen throughout the book,” Gwillim said. “Taking the different floral elements from pages in the book to create a new scene on a round coin was a welcomed design challenge – applying colour to such a detailed coin also took a lot of care and precision.”

The Tale of Peter Rabbit 2022 UK 5 Brilliant Uncirculated Coin reverse.

Recently, research from The Royal Mint revealed that more than half of 35–44-year-olds said that childhood character coins were the main reason for starting a collection (51 per cent). The childhood character coins also inspired almost three quarters of Royal Mint’s collectors aged 18-24 (74 per cent).

“Coins remain Britain’s favourite collectable item. Their appeal continues to reach new collectors with the increasing popularity of our childhood character coins which celebrate some of the greatest childhood stories and characters we know and love on official UK coin,” said Clare Maclennan, the Royal Mint’s Director of Commemorative Coin.  “The collectable Peter Rabbit £5 crown is the latest release in the series, marking the 120th anniversary of the mischievous, loveable rabbit. Inspired by the original watercolour illustrations, and available in a vibrant special colour edition, the coin is itself a beautiful work of art for collectors of all ages, and we’re so thrilled to see these pieces are inspiring new and younger collectors to get involved.”

Since 2016 The Tale of Peter Rabbit has been brought to life on a number of 50p and £5 coin designs, with Peter being the very first literary children’s character to appear on a Royal Mint coin.  Each Peter Rabbit design created since 2016 has evolved, demonstrating a different aspect of Peter Rabbit’s cheeky personality, as well as other loveable characters created by Beatrix Potter.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit 2022 UK 1oz Gold Proof Coin reverse.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter was first published in 1902 and since then the iconic rabbit in a blue jacket has gone on to win the hearts of millions of families around the world. The original Tale has sold over 46 million copies globally and has been published in 48 languages including Braille and Hieroglyphics.

The coin is available as gold and silver proof editions, as well as a Brilliant Uncirculated edition available from The Royal Mint website. The coin is commemorative and will not be entering general circulation.