50 Pence - Elizabeth II 4th portrait, Royal Shield, Gold Piedfort

The Royal Shield 50p was part of a redesign commissioned by the Royal Mint in 2008, when graphic designer Matthew Dent won an open competition to create a unified heraldic series — the first wholesale redesign of British circulating coinage in decades. The conceit was that each denomination from 1p to 50p would carry a fragment of the Royal Arms, only resolving into the complete shield when the coins were assembled together.

The piedfort gold edition was struck exclusively for collectors; no circulation example in this metal exists. At double the standard flan thickness, pieforts have been a Royal Mint collector format since the 1980s revival of a medieval practice.