5 Pounds - Elizabeth II Prince Charles 60th Birthday, Platinum Piedfort

Prince Charles turned 60 on November 14, 2008, and the Royal Mint marked the occasion with a piedfort struck in platinum — a material reserved almost exclusively for proof issues and presentation pieces by this point in the Mint's modern output. Piedforts, historically produced since medieval France as presentation strikes double the standard thickness, had been reintroduced by the Royal Mint in 1982 for collector series; this platinum example sits at the extreme end of that tradition in both metal value and production complexity.

Mintage figures for this piece were exceptionally low, reflecting platinum's cost in 2008, when the metal briefly exceeded $2,000 per troy ounce before the autumn financial crisis drove it sharply downward.