1 oz Queen's Beasts Gold Coin

The Royal Mint's Heraldic Series, Now Completed

The 1 oz Gold Queen's Beasts is a completed series from The Royal Mint, issued from 2016 to 2021. Ten individual designs, plus a final Completer Coin featuring all ten beasts on a single reverse, make up the full programme. The series celebrated the ten heraldic statues that flanked the entrance to Westminster Abbey at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, tracing the Queen's ancestry through centuries of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish heraldic symbolism.

Each coin contains 31.21 grams of .9999 fine gold and carries a face value of £100 as UK legal tender. That legal tender status is the key practical distinction for UK buyers: Queen's Beasts gold coins are both VAT-free and CGT-exempt, the same double tax advantage offered by the 1oz Gold Britannia and 1oz Gold Tudor Beasts.

Because the series has concluded, supply is fixed and entirely secondary-market. Bullion versions had no mintage cap during their production years (coins were struck to meet demand, then discontinued), so individual-year availability varies. Early releases like the Lion of England (2016) have seen premiums rise since the series ended. For buyers who want an ongoing programme with annual releases, The Royal Mint's Tudor Beasts series (2022-2026) is the direct successor, designed by David Lawrence as a follow-up to Jody Clark's Queen's Beasts.

All ten designs were created by Jody Clark, the Royal Mint engraver who also designed the fifth definitive coinage portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Each reverse depicts a stylised heraldic beast holding a shield bearing the royal arms or dynastic badge it represents.

1 oz Gold Queen's Beasts Technical Details

The Ten Beasts

A guilloche patterned background, consisting of braided-ribbon geometric patterns, was added to the bullion versions from 2018 onwards, providing both visual depth and an anti-counterfeiting function. Earlier issues (2016-2017) have a plain background field. The series does not carry the advanced four-feature security suite (surface animation, latent image, tincture lines, micro-text) used on the Britannia from 2021.

All coins bear the Jody Clark portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse. Cupro-nickel base metal versions were also produced at a £5 face value for the collector market, alongside the bullion and proof ranges.

Queen's Beasts Tax Treatment by Country

The Queen's Beasts' UK legal tender status provides the same tax position as the Britannia for UK buyers. For international buyers, the coin is treated as standard sovereign-mint investment gold.

• United Kingdom: Gold coins are VAT-free as investment gold. CGT-exempt as UK legal tender. This applies to all Queen's Beasts gold coins regardless of the specific beast design or year. The CGT exemption makes them functionally equivalent to the Britannia for UK tax purposes, even though the series has ended. Silver and platinum Queen's Beasts are also CGT-exempt but carry 20% VAT on purchase.
• United States: Not specifically listed as IRA-eligible. UK legal tender coins meeting fineness requirements (.9999 gold) may be accepted by some custodians, but this is not guaranteed. Capital gains are taxed as collectibles at up to 28%.
• European Union: Gold versions are VAT-exempt under the EU Investment Gold Directive. Germany offers complete capital gains exemption on bullion held for more than one year.
• Canada: GST/HST exempt as investment gold at 99.5%+ purity. Capital gains are taxed at a 50% inclusion rate.
• Australia: GST-free as investment-grade gold. CGT applies with a 50% discount for holdings over 12 months.
• Singapore: GST-exempt as an Investment Precious Metal. No capital gains tax.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax, no import duty, no capital gains tax.

Coronation Heraldry in Gold

The original Queen's Beasts were ten six-foot plaster statues sculpted by James Woodford RA, each representing a heraldic beast from the lineage of the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II. They lined the entrance to Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, forming a guard of honour drawn from centuries of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish royal history. After the coronation, the statues were dispersed to various locations; several now stand at Kew Gardens, and one resides at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa.

The Royal Mint announced the coin series in 2016 with the Lion of England, the first release. Jody Clark, already celebrated for designing the fifth and final portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on UK coinage, created all ten beast reverses. Each design follows a consistent format: a heraldic beast holding a shield bearing the arms or badge of the dynasty it represents. The Lion of England holds the royal arms; the Red Dragon of Wales holds the badge of Henry VII; the Unicorn of Scotland holds the royal arms of Scotland.

The series introduced the first-ever 2 oz UK silver bullion coin, establishing a weight format that the successor Tudor Beasts programme continued. On the gold side, the 1 oz format matched the standard weight of the Britannia, and both coins shared the same face value (£100).

A final Completer Coin in April 2021 depicted all ten beasts arranged around a central shield. The most extreme version of this coin was a 10 kg gold proof with a face value of £10,000. With the Completer Coin, the series concluded. No further Queen's Beasts bullion coins will be produced. All remaining supply exists on the secondary market, which means premiums on individual designs can only increase as circulating supply diminishes through loss, damage, and long-term holding.

Queen's Beasts vs Britannia, Tudor Beasts, and Royal Arms

For UK buyers, the Queen's Beasts competes primarily with other Royal Mint coins that share the CGT exemption: the 1oz Gold Britannia, the 1oz Gold Tudor Beasts, and the 1oz Gold Royal Arms. All four are .9999 gold, all carry £100 face values, and all are VAT-free and CGT-exempt.

The Britannia has the widest international recognition and the strongest security features (four-feature suite from 2021). It is the default recommendation for UK buyers who want the most liquid, most widely traded CGT-exempt gold coin. The Queen's Beasts has no equivalent security technology, relying on the guilloche background pattern added from 2018 and the inherent design detail.

The 1oz Gold Tudor Beasts is the direct successor programme, designed by David Lawrence rather than Jody Clark. Both series feature heraldic beasts holding shields, but the Tudor Beasts draw from Hampton Court Palace's King's Beasts statues (Tudor era) rather than the coronation statues. The Tudor Beasts programme runs 2022-2026 with two new designs per year, meaning it will produce ten designs over five years, the same total as Queen's Beasts but at twice the pace. Tudor Beasts silver purity is .9999, matching Queen's Beasts and exceeding the Britannia's .999.

The 1oz Gold Royal Arms offers a simpler value proposition: the same CGT exemption and VAT-free gold in a consistent heraldic design that has not changed across seven years of production (2019-2025). For buyers who want a predictable, no-frills CGT-exempt gold coin, the Royal Arms or Britannia are more straightforward choices. The Queen's Beasts appeals to buyers who value the collectible dimension of ten distinct designs in a completed series, with the understanding that secondary-market premiums may be higher than for coins still in production.