500 Pounds - Charles III John Lennon, Silver Proof

Issued as part of the Royal Mint's ongoing Music Legends series, this piece continues a programme launched in 2020 with a Queen edition that generated substantial secondary market demand well above issue price. Lennon was notoriously resistant to official commemoration during his lifetime, and the Beatles' fraught relationship with the British establishment — he returned his MBE in 1969 in protest over British foreign policy — gives any Crown-issued tribute a certain irony worth noting.

At just over a kilogram of fine silver in a 100mm format, production tolerances on pieces this size mean die wear across a limited run can vary measurably between early and late strikes.