“95 Years of Heart and Devotion” was the title of the tribute. It featured images of many coins projected on the Tower at 90 feet. The Tower housed the Royal Mint for centuries.
The celebration was visible along the Thames and featured five effigies representing Queen Elizabeth’s reign as well as her special 95th birthday coin.
The Royal Mint’s long-standing relationship with Britain’s longest-reigning monarch is reflected in the “Life in Coins” illumination. In 1953, Elizabeth II’s first coins were struck by the Royal Mint — “a portrait for the young monarch”. Many billions of coins bearing her image have been produced since then. The queen approves every new coin design.
The illumination featured Mary Gillick’s 1953 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II; Arnold Machin’s 1968 decimalization design; Raphael Maklouf effigy, launched in 1985, showing the queen wearing the Royal Diadem on her way to the State Opening of Parliament; 1998 Ian-Rank Broadley effigy; 2015 Jody Clark effigy.
The Royal Mint also issued a special 95th birthday coin earlier in the year, which culminated the illumination. The design features the inscribed “My Heart and My Devotion” — which refers to a promise made by the queen in 1957’s Christmas speech and which she has kept ever since.
