Tudor Beasts Platinum

Platinum Tudor Beasts from The Royal Mint

The Tudor Beasts platinum coin is the successor to the Platinum Queen's Beasts, issued by The Royal Mint from 2022 with the final designs scheduled for 2026. Like its predecessor, the series presents ten heraldic beasts over five years, releasing two designs annually. The difference is the source material: the Tudor Beasts draw from the stone statues on the Moat Bridge of Hampton Court Palace, originally erected under Henry VIII, rather than the coronation statues of 1953.

The platinum version is struck as a 1 oz coin at 999.5 fineness with a face value of GBP 100. All reverses are the work of David Lawrence, an illustrator and sculptor with over 30 years' experience. Each beast holds a shield bearing Tudor heraldic arms, depicted in a more dynamic and detailed style than the cleaner heraldic approach Jody Clark used for the Queen's Beasts. The coins feature a guilloche patterned background on bullion versions, the same geometric lattice used on the Queen's Beasts since 2018.

A notable aspect of this series is the obverse transition. Coins from 2022 bear the Jody Clark portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, while those from 2023 onward carry the Martin Jennings portrait of King Charles III. For investors, this is a design detail rather than a value distinction, but some collectors seek matched pairs of both portrait variants for each beast.

As UK legal tender, the Platinum Tudor Beasts carry CGT exemption for UK residents, making them one of the more tax-efficient routes into physical platinum alongside the Platinum Britannia. The 20% VAT on purchase still applies, as it does to all platinum bullion in the UK.

1 oz Platinum Tudor Beasts Specifications

The Ten Beasts and Release Schedule

Security relies on the guilloche background pattern rather than the Britannia's four-feature suite (surface animation, latent image, tincture lines, micro-text). Proof versions feature a plain field without the guilloche.

Platinum Tudor Beasts Tax Treatment by Country

The Tudor Beasts share the same tax profile as the Platinum Queen's Beasts and Platinum Britannia, since all three are UK legal tender platinum coins from The Royal Mint. The key benefit for UK investors is CGT exemption on disposal, balanced against 20% VAT on purchase.

Country-by-Country Summary

• United Kingdom: 20% VAT on purchase. CGT exempt on disposal as UK legal tender. VAT-free vault storage available through dealers who hold the metal outside free circulation. SIPP eligible through approved pension providers.
• United States: No federal sales tax; most states exempt investment-grade platinum. Not IRA eligible. Capital gains taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%.
• Canada: GST/HST exempt at 999.5 fine (exceeds the 99.5% purity threshold). Capital gains at 50% inclusion rate.
• Australia: GST-free for platinum at 99% purity or above. The Tudor Beasts at 999.5 fine qualifies. CGT applies with 50% discount for holdings over 12 months.
• New Zealand: GST exempt for platinum at 99% purity or above. No capital gains tax.
• Singapore: GST exempt under the IPM scheme for qualifying platinum coins at 99% purity or above that are legal tender. No capital gains tax.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax, import duty, or capital gains tax on platinum bullion.
• South Africa: 15% VAT applies to platinum. No legal tender platinum coin exemption exists domestically. CGT at 40% inclusion rate.
• EU: Platinum is subject to standard local VAT rates across EU member states (17% to 27%). No investment platinum exemption comparable to the investment gold directive.

From Hampton Court to Modern Bullion

The Tudor Beasts series takes its subject from the stone statues that line the Moat Bridge at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey. The original palace was built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey from 1514 and later appropriated by Henry VIII, who installed ten beast statues as heraldic guardians. The originals deteriorated over the centuries, and the statues standing on the bridge today are 20th-century replicas carved by Joseph Cribb in the 1930s.

The Royal Mint announced the series in October 2021, positioning it as a successor to the Queen's Beasts (2016 to 2021). The first coin, the Seymour Panther, entered bullion production in 2022. Each beast holds a shield bearing a heraldic badge from the Tudor era, connecting the series to a single dynasty rather than the broad ancestral sweep of its predecessor.

The timing placed the Tudor Beasts at the intersection of two reigns. The 2022 issues carry the final Jody Clark portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. From 2023, the Martin Jennings portrait of King Charles III took its place. This makes the Tudor Beasts one of the few modern coin series to bridge the Elizabethan and Carolean eras, giving collectors a practical reason to acquire coins from both portrait periods.

The Royal Mint runs the Tudor Beasts concurrently with the Britannia, positioning them for different audiences. The Britannia serves core bullion demand with a single iconic design and advanced security features. The Tudor Beasts target the collector-investor crossover market, offering annual design variety and a defined completion date. Limited frosted two-coin silver proof sets, capped at 500 to 1,000 pieces per release, reinforce the collectible dimension.

Tudor Beasts vs Britannia, Queen's Beasts, and Other Platinum Coins

The Platinum Tudor Beasts competes most directly with the Platinum Britannia, since both come from The Royal Mint at the same purity (999.5), the same face value (GBP 100), and the same CGT-exempt status for UK residents. The Britannia has the edge in security technology, carrying the four-feature anti-counterfeiting suite since 2021. It also has wider international recognition as a flagship bullion product. The Tudor Beasts offers what the Britannia does not: annual design variety and a finite production run.

The Platinum Queen's Beasts is the direct predecessor. Both series use ten heraldic beasts, both run for five years, and both use a guilloche background on bullion versions. The Queen's Beasts is already a completed series with fixed supply, which gives it potential secondary market premium over current-production Tudor Beasts coins. The design philosophies differ, with Queen's Beasts tracing ancestry across all dynasties and Tudor Beasts focusing specifically on Henry VIII's Hampton Court heraldry.

Compared to the American Platinum Eagle, the Tudor Beasts lacks IRA eligibility and has narrower recognition in North American markets. The Eagle has been in production since 1997 and is the most established platinum bullion coin in the United States. Against the Platinum Maple Leaf (in production since 1988), the Tudor Beasts is a newcomer with a smaller international dealer network but potentially stronger appeal to collectors who value annual design changes.

The silver versions of the Tudor Beasts are struck at 999.9 purity (four nines), which is higher than the Britannia's 999 silver. This purity distinction does not apply to the platinum versions, where all sovereign mints standardise at 999.5 fine. The practical differences between platinum Tudor Beasts and platinum competitors come down to design preference, series format (finite vs ongoing), and regional tax treatment rather than any metallurgical distinction.