Original Pencil on Tracing Paper Numismatic Drawings
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A Remarkable Set of Original Pencil on Tracing Paper Numismatic Drawings for the "Second Competition for Decimal Coinage of the United Kingdom", 1966-1968, "Group VII, nos. 412-418", by Christopher Ironside, on tracing paper, and pre-dated for 1971, signed by the artist at 22 Abingdon Villas, London, including: Decimal 20 NEW PENCE, Royal Coat-of-Arms, the tracing edited from the submission copy by virtue of an inverted date; Decimal 10 NEW PENCE, Saint George and the Dragon; Decimal 5 NEW PENCE (2 designs), Open and Closed Thistle; Decimal 2 NEW PENCE (2 designs), armoured and unarmoured Dragon Passant; Decimal 1 NEW PENCE (2 Designs), Crowned Union Flag and Seated Britannia and Trident; lastly, Decimal HALF NEW PENNY, Crowned Beaufort Portcullis and Chain (cf. BM 2006.0601.369 for pencil on submission card; and BM 2006.0601.436-443 - "Set 2" but reading 'PENNY' for 'PENCE' on the Penny Design), mounted but loose with non-archival taping on white card by the artist, some minor creasing to tracing paper, otherwise drawings good very fine to extremely fine, presumably a UNIQUE set outside of those held by the Royal Mint and British Museum cabinets, and the parallel designs to that held in the National Collection, of great numismatic interest, especially as rejected designs and the unadopted 'Double-Florin' planchet for the proposed Twenty Pence coin, in the illustrious 150-year story of the pursuit of a Decimal Coinage of Great Britain (9 sketchings)
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_2006-0601-369
This remarkable series of draftsman's pencil sketches on tracing paper provides just one set of an extensive series of proposals made by Christopher Ironside following his selection by public ballot after renewed calls for Decimalised Currency in Britain from 1961. It would be a decade before the Decimal Currency Board achieved their stated objective, after two rounds of designs, trials and deliberation. This particular series of sketches dates to the Second Competition held in 1966, when the Decimalisation year had already been set for 1971, but the concept of a 20-Pence coin remained in its infancy and was still based upon the historic Double-Florin last issued for circulation in 1890 as evidenced by the large round coin conceived here. A vast trove of similar works was accessioned into the British Museum via the artist's son, Christian in 2006, but this particular piece was gifted to a neighbour within Sir Christopher's own lifetime and has descended with the recipient's family to the present. The extensive collection consigned by Christian to the British Museum (BM 2006.0601) numbers over 450 pieces and documents the multitude of variations and designs Ironside submitted for consideration. (egs. 2006.0601.166; 2006.0601.168; 2006.0601.169; 2006.0601.171; 2006.0601.173; 2006.0601.174; 2006.0601.175; 2006.0601.176; 2006.0601.177; 2006.0601.180; 2006.0601.182; 2006.0601.183; 2006.0601.184; 2006.0601.185; 2006.0601.186; 2006.0601.187; 2006.0601.188; 2006.0601.189; 2006.0601.191; 2006.0601.192; 2006.0601.208; 2006.0601.222; 2006.0601.223; 2006.0601.224; 2006.0601.225; 2006.0601.226; 2006.0601.227; 2006.0601.228; 2006.0601.229; 2006,0601.230; 2006.0601.234; 2006.0601.235; 2006.0601.236; 2006.0601.237; 2006.0601.239; 2006.0601.240; 2006.0601.241; 2006.0601.242; 2006.0601.250; 2006.0601.254; 2006.0601.255; 2006.0601.256; 2006.0601.347; 2006.0601.391; 2006.0601.407; 2006.0601.430; 2006.0601.434; 2006.0601.446; 2006.0601.463; 2006.0601.466; 2006.0601.467; 2006.0601.468).
His careful attempts to incorporate uniquely Northern Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English themes alongside distinctively unionistic Royal symbolism is plain to see, and perhaps rather sad that it was never fully implemented. The vast experimentation with shared designs across various denominations recalls the development of T Humphrey Paget and Kruger Gray's designs for Edward VIII and George VI when the Golden Hind famously shifted from the Halfcrown to the Halfpenny for the final coin design. Here we see the Beaufort Portcullis of Parliament appear on the Half New Pence - of course the final machination would have it on the Penny, and the simple but deeply attractive crowned Union flag relegated all together.
Christopher Ironside studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, before servind in the Directorate of Camouflage during the Second World War. In the late 1940s, he migrated to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, and the Council of Industrial Design, before spending 10 years as a part-time teacher at the Royal College of Art. Despite being rather overlooked for some of his more eye-catching and jingoist numismatic designs, Ironside's legacy as one of the great numismatic artists of post-War Europe is vast, as he undertook many commissions for the Royal Mint, including coins for Bahrain, Tanzania, Qatar and Dubai, Brunei, Jamaica, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Mauritius, Malta, Kuwait and Singapore, along with well-known medals for the New York Exhibition of 1960 and for the Tower of London. He also received a direct commission from the Duke of Edinburgh for the British Sub-Aqua medal. In 2019, to mark the Centenary of his birth, his original 50P design proposal was finally implemented on the circulating UK coin, it is only hoped that some of his other more intricate and patriotic imagery provides inspiration for further numismatic design.
It is of course exceedingly rare for design drawings and numismatic trial proposals to ever surface in the public domain, the vast majority being locked away in the Royal Mint as part of the approval process. With the 2006 bequest, the likelihood of a similar portfolio appearing from this important post-war artist is remote in the extreme. As imagery their design may be rather rigid and restrained, as witnesses to one of the most seismic developments in the 2,000-year history of the British coinage, their legacy, and Ironside's approved artwork is entirely profound. Like the reproduced image of our late Queen, this forgotten artist, by pure metric of reproductions is one of the most successful British artistic exports of the 20th Century.
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