Never one to rest on their laurels for long, Scottsdale Mint has launched another coin series today, and in a nod to the hugely popular and highly regarded Queens Beasts series from the Royal Mint, is trying their hand at Britain’s rich heraldic history. Called The Royal Arms of England, they’re inextricably linked to the bloody history of one of the world’s most influential monarchies. Even the most ardent anti-royalist would have to concede the existence of some stunning royal imagery over the centuries, so Scottsdale certainly have a rich vein to mine for inspiration.

Planned to be an annual series, this first design depicts the coat of arms of the legendary Plantagenet King Richard the Lionheart. This is accepted to be the first Royal Arms of England and is still in wide use today – most notably on the shirts of the England football team. Depicting three lions passant guardant, this striking design is an obvious choice to launch this new series. Scottsdale have made the whole issue a little more complex that a straight choice of silver and gold, however.

The reverse proof silver coin is available with one of five different colour highlights. A choice of yellow, purple, red and blue make up the bulk of the options and there are 500 of each being minted. Those that purchase 25 coins (we’re assuming this is aimed at dealers rather than individual collectors) will get the opportunity to purchase a single black one, which has a total mintage of just 99 pieces. Expect dealers to sell this one for a significant premium. Each coin comes in a coin box with a serialised certificate of authenticity.

As well as gold, there’s a gold coin on offer as well. Just two colours this time with a 500 mintage blue highlighted design forming the bulk of choice, with a limited black highlighted coin available to those that buy five blue coins. We’d be very surprised if the black coin hit its full mintage of 99 given the sales conditions as they will not be sold seperately, just like the silver variant. Both gold and silver coins carry the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse – just as you would expect from a Gibraltar issue.

The best news for most of our readers will be the news that bullion versions are coming soon. A one ounce silver, and one and fifth ounce gold variants are on their way and we’ll cover them when they appear. We’re not expecting colour on those. This looks to be a pretty cool series and we’d imagine the bullion coins will be well recieved given the ever popular classic design and the fact that Scottsdale are minting them – a producer with a growing reputation for high-quality and interesting designs in the low-mintage bullion coin market. Available now.