5 Pounds - Charles III Queen Elizabeth II: The Mary Gillick Portrait

This piece belongs to a planned series honoring portraits used on British coinage during Elizabeth II's reign, with Mary Gillick's effigy — the first commissioned for Elizabeth, introduced in 1953 — selected as the opening subject. Gillick's portrait was itself controversial at issue: the lack of a crown prompted questions in some Commonwealth territories about whether the figure was identifiably royal. The Royal Mint resolved it quietly by adding a more visible diadem to versions intended for certain markets.

The 2026 date places this squarely in the early Charles III coinage era, a period of significant administrative retooling at the Mint as it phased out decades of accumulated Elizabeth II reverse and obverse die infrastructure.