Made with almost 4kg of gold and more than 6,426 diamonds, a new coin has been unveiled in honour of the late Queen – and may be among the most valuable of all time.
The creator of the luxury object called The Crown – the East India Company – has valued it at around $23m (£18.47m).
It has been revealed ahead of the first anniversary of the Queen’s death.
It is described as a “16-month labour of love” by craftsmen from across the Commonwealth, and is one that “many thought was not possible due to the scale of the project and the global shortage of diamonds as a result of the pandemic”.
The current world record for the most expensive coin is a rare “double Eagle” gold coin that sold for £15.17m at auction in 2021. It is not known if The Crown will go up for sale.
The coin is the size of a basketball and features a series of portraits of the late monarch by renowned portrait artists Mary Gillick, Arnold Machin, Raphael Maklouf, and Ian Rank-Broadley. A further portrait by Jody Clark is used on the reverse side of the centrepiece coin.
“The Crown was meticulously handcrafted: the diamonds were painstakingly cut and individually placed to fit seamlessly within the design, while two distinct settings were used to mirror the flowing fabric of the British Union Jack,” the East India Company said.
The East India Company dates back to 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I bestowed it with her royal patronage, allowing it to trade exclusively in spices, tea, coffee and other luxury goods from the East.
It operated for almost 300 years before being dissolved in 1874. In 2005, Indian-born businessman Sanjiv Mehta acquired the rights to the name, before relaunching it as a lifestyle brand in 2010.