5 Pounds - Elizabeth II 4th portrait, Royal Wedding

Issued to mark the April 2011 marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, this piece came from a Royal Mint that had relocated just two years earlier from its centuries-old Tower Hill site to a purpose-built facility in Llantrisant, Wales. The copper-nickel version was the mass-market counterpart to a range of precious metal strikes produced for the same event, most of which sold out rapidly on pre-order.

The Spink reference L22 places it firmly in the commemorative crown series that the Royal Mint had been issuing since the 1960s — a format kept alive largely by collector demand rather than any circulating need.