5 Pounds - Elizabeth II Queen's 90th Birthday, Silver Proof

Issued to mark Elizabeth II's 90th birthday in April 2016, this was one of several concurrent commemorative releases from the Royal Mint that year — the sheer volume of which drew criticism from collectors who felt the program had become more revenue exercise than numismatic event. By 2016, the Royal Mint's collector coin output had expanded dramatically from its pre-2000 scale, a commercial shift that has complicated long-term secondary market performance for many issues in this series.