100 Pounds - Elizabeth II Year of The Ox, Gold Proof

The 2021 Lunar Year of the Ox marked the penultimate release in the Royal Mint's second Lunar series, which launched in 2014 and departed significantly from the earlier Charleton-era designs by commissioning a rotating roster of artists. This piece carries design work by Wuon-Gean Ho, a British printmaker whose woodblock-influenced aesthetic brought a distinctly East Asian graphic sensibility to the series — a deliberate choice by the Mint to appeal to collector markets in Hong Kong, Singapore, and mainland China, where demand for Royal Mint lunar issues has consistently outpaced domestic uptake.

Struck to .9999 fineness rather than the more common .9167 used in Britannias, the spec aligns with purity expectations in Asian bullion markets.