Elizabeth II honored with basketball-sized gold coin worth ‘Dubbed "The Crown," the commemorative coin is made from 8 pounds of gold and over 6,400 diamonds.
Made from almost 8 pounds of gold and some 6,426 diamonds, a new coin honoring the life of Queen Elizabeth II may be “among the most valuable coins of all time.”
In fact, the creator of this one-off luxury object has valued it at “around $23 million.”
Unveiled on Monday, days before the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death, the commemorative coin as a whole is not considered legal tender in the UK (although the denominations of coins contained within the design are). It was produced by the East India Company, a luxury lifestyle brand with rights to the name of the corporation that once controlled large swathes of Britain’s empire.
Dubbed “The Crown”, in a press release, the company described its creation as an “objet d’art.” The current Guinness World Record for the most expensive coin ever to sell at auction is held by a rare 1933 US “Double Eagle” that fetched $18.9 million at Sotheby’s New York in June 2021.
The coin has a diameter of over 9.6 inches, making it wider than an NBA-regulation basketball and its design comprises almost a dozen 24-carat gold coins nestled in beds of diamonds.
The center coin weighs over 2 pounds, while the smaller ones around it each weigh 1 ounce and feature either portraits of the late monarch or depictions of virtues including truth, justice and courage.
On one side, thousands of diamonds have been arranged to resemble the UK’s flag, while the setting of the reverse was inspired by the late queen’s tiaras.