1000 Pounds - Elizabeth II Last Flight of the Concorde

Concorde's final commercial flights took place on October 24, 2003, when Air France retired its fleet, followed by British Airways on November 26. The decision was ultimately commercial and reputational — the 2000 Air France crash at Gonesse, which killed 113 people, had grounded the type for over a year, and the post-9/11 collapse in transatlantic luxury travel made the economics unworkable. British Airways and Air France had actually been offered the aircraft for free by Airbus; both declined.

Alderney, a small dependency of the British Crown with its own issuing authority, produced several Concorde commemoratives across its final years of service. At a kilogram of 22-carat gold, this piece was struck in extremely limited numbers — production at that weight and diameter is a significant minting undertaking in itself.