5 Pounds - Charles III Una and the Lion

The "Una and the Lion" design has one of the more unusual origin stories in British numismatics. William Wyon's original appeared on an 1839 pattern crown struck for Queen Victoria's coronation — never circulated, never officially adopted, and largely forgotten until collectors drove it to legendary status over the following century. Tristan da Cunha has become a reliable vehicle for prestige bullion issues precisely because its political dependency status allows use of the British crown's authority without the constraints of Royal Mint production mandates.

Wyon based the composition on Spenser's The Faerie Queene, casting Victoria as Una leading a lion — a deliberate piece of monarchical flattery at accession.