COINS featuring a remastered portrait of Henry VIII have been unveiled by the Royal Mint.
It’s the fifth coin in the British Monarchs collection and the second to feature a king from the House of Tudor.
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Prices for the Henry VIII coin range from £99.50 for a silver £2 denomination coin to £12,500 for a £500 denomination gold proof coin.
But they won’t be in circulation, meaning you won’t be able to use them in shops.
History buffs can get their hands on the new coins from today at 12pm on the Royal Mint website.
This is the first coin in the collection to feature His Majesty King Charles III’s portrait on the obverse.
Royal Mint said it’s expecting this will mean collectors will be eager to get their hands on the coins.
Henry’s father Henry VII featured on the first coin of the series.
Henry VIII, who reigned between 1509 and 1547, had the nickname of “old Coppernose”, the Royal Mint said.
Coinage in his era involved mixing the precious metal content of a coin with a more common metal, like copper.
Coins were struck with increasing amounts of copper, with a thin layer of silver added.
This layer eventually wore away, particularly around the nose of the Henry VIII’s forward-facing portrait, the Mint said.
The Mint said the debasement of coinage affected the quality of Henry VIII’s portrait.
Which made it one of the most difficult of the original portraits to reproduce for the collection, as the design had lost definition over the years.
To remaster the original coin, the Mint’s design team used scanners to examine the original coin.
The remastered Henry VIII coin design shows what it would have looked like once the coin was struck, before it lost its clarity, the Mint said.
Rebecca Morgan, director of collector services at the Royal Mint said: “Despite the challenge caused by the quality of Henry VIII’s original portrait, the effigy has been faithfully recreated in fine detail using state-of-the-art technology and numismatic processes.
“We are delighted to add Henry VIII as the fifth addition to the popular British monarchs collection.
She added: “With this being the first coin in the series to feature the official coinage portrait of His Majesty King Charles III, we do anticipate a high demand for these coins from collectors.
“There has been significant international appeal with the British monarchs Collection, with its coins being bought by collectors in multiple countries.”
The Royal Mint’s British monarchs series spans four Royal houses – Tudor, Stuart, Hanover and Windsor, remastering the old designs in high definition.
There are several different types of coins you can buy from the Royal Mint.
Circulated coins are the ones you’ll see in your shop change.
Brilliant uncirculated coins are a higher standard than circulating and bullion coins.
The machines used to strike these coins are polished and finished by hand.
Proof coins are the highest quality coins produced by the Royal Mint and are all hand-finished.
Bullion coins are made from gold and silver and are usually used as an investment that aims to retain a certain value over time.
There are dozens of collections available for collectors.
Last year it launched its Harry Potter collection in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Philosopher’s Stone.
Meanwhile, the first commemorative £2 coins featuring King Charles III were released earlier this month.
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