1 oz Landmarks of Britain Silver Coin

The 1 oz Landmarks of Britain Silver Coin

The Landmarks of Britain is a four-coin silver bullion series from The Royal Mint, released between 2017 and 2019 and capped at 50,000 coins per design. Each coin contains 1 oz of .999 fine silver, carries a GBP 2 face value, and depicts an iconic British landmark: Big Ben (2017), Tower Bridge (2018), Trafalgar Square (2018), and Buckingham Palace (2019). The series is complete, with Buckingham Palace as the final release, and all four designs are now archived at The Royal Mint and trade on the secondary market.

The case for this coin over standard bullion comes down to two things. First, the 50,000 mintage cap per design creates moderate scarcity that the 1oz silver Britannia lacks; the Britannia has no mintage limit. Secondary market prices for several Landmarks designs, particularly the Big Ben, have risen above their original issue prices. Second, as UK legal tender, profits on sale are exempt from Capital Gains Tax for UK buyers, the same advantage the Britannia offers but with a collectible angle on top.

The trade-off is cost and availability. With the series sold out at the mint, buyers pay collectible premiums above what an unlimited-mintage bullion coin commands, and finding specific designs depends on secondary market supply. The series occupies a middle ground between pure bullion like the Britannia and full numismatic products like proof sets. Buyers wanting the cheapest possible silver should look at unlimited-mintage silver coins or bars instead; buyers wanting a complete, finished Royal Mint set with built-in scarcity will find the four-coin Landmarks series fits that purpose exactly.

Landmarks of Britain Specifications

The four designs share identical specifications, differing only in the reverse artwork. The GBP 2 face value matches the denomination used on the 1 oz silver Britannia. Note the .999 purity: The Royal Mint moved its Britannia coins to .9999 fine silver in 2013 but kept .999 for the Landmarks series. The fineness can matter in jurisdictions that set purity thresholds for tax exemptions, though .999 (99.9%) still meets the silver thresholds in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

The obverse of all four coins carries the fifth-generation portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Jody Clark, introduced in 2015. The coins do not carry the micro-text or lenticular security features found on later Royal Mint bullion issues such as the Britannia; authentication rests on standard Royal Mint quality assurance plus weight and dimension checks.

Landmarks of Britain Tax Treatment by Country

The headline feature for UK buyers is Capital Gains Tax exemption. As UK legal tender coins with a GBP 2 face value, any profit on sale is CGT-free, the same treatment given to Sovereigns and Britannias. Bars and non-legal-tender rounds do not get this exemption; gains on those are taxed at the individual's CGT rate above the annual allowance (currently £3,000).

Purchase tax is a different story. Silver is not covered by the UK's investment gold VAT exemption, so new silver coins attract 20% VAT. Pre-owned coins bought from a VAT-registered dealer under the margin scheme carry VAT on the dealer's margin only, which brings the effective rate close to zero. Since the entire Landmarks series is sold out at the mint and trades on the secondary market, margin scheme listings are worth seeking out for UK buyers.

Elsewhere:

• United States: No federal sales tax; state rules vary, with roughly 35 states exempting bullion. Long-term capital gains on bullion are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%.
• Canada: Silver refined to 99.9% or higher purity in coin form is GST/HST exempt, so the .999 Landmarks coins qualify.
• Australia and New Zealand: Investment-grade silver at 99.9% purity or higher is GST-free in both countries; .999 meets the threshold.
• EU: Silver coins attract full local VAT rates (19% in Germany, 21% in the Netherlands, and so on), with margin scheme options for pre-owned coins in some countries. The coins' UK legal tender status confers no EU tax advantage post-Brexit.

From a 2014 Proof Set to a Four-Coin Bullion Series

The Landmarks of Britain designs did not start life as bullion. They first appeared in a 2014 four-coin proof set that used trichromatic colour printing on silver, limited to 3,500 sets. The success of that proof set led The Royal Mint to adapt the same designs, without the colour printing, into a bullion programme launched in 2017. All four reverse designs were created by Royal Mint coin designers Glyn Davies and Laura Clancy.

The series opened in 2017 with Big Ben, showing the Elizabeth Tower from a low angle with the clock face prominent. Big Ben is technically the name of the bell, which weighs approximately 13.5 tonnes, while the tower itself stands 96 metres tall. That design had its own prior history, having originally been created for a GBP 100 commemorative coin in 2015.

2018 was the series' most prolific year, with two releases: Tower Bridge, the Victorian Gothic bascule bridge opened in 1894, depicted with its twin towers and high-level walkways; and Trafalgar Square, showing Nelson's Column with the National Gallery visible in the background. Buckingham Palace closed the series in 2019 with a distant view of the monarch's official London residence.

One quirk stands out: despite the name Landmarks of Britain, all four landmarks are in London. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England outside the capital are not represented. The series was always planned as a four-coin set, and The Royal Mint has confirmed no further releases. With all designs archived, secondary market prices for several coins, particularly the 2017 Big Ben, have risen above their original issue prices.

Landmarks of Britain vs Britannia, Queen's Beasts, and Philharmonic

Against the 1oz silver Britannia, the trade is scarcity versus cost. The Britannia is The Royal Mint's primary silver bullion coin: no mintage limit, lower premiums, and more advanced security features since 2021. Both are UK legal tender and CGT-exempt, so the tax position is identical for UK buyers. The Landmarks coins answer with a 50,000 cap per design and a completed series, which has supported secondary market appreciation the Britannia does not offer. Buyers stacking ounces should take the Britannia; buyers wanting collectible upside within a CGT-exempt wrapper have a case for the Landmarks coins.

The Royal Mint's Queen's Beasts series is the closer comparison on the collectible side. It also used limited mintages per design, but with ten coins rather than four, a heraldic rather than architectural theme, and 2 oz of .9999 fine silver per coin rather than 1 oz of .999. The larger format means a higher outlay per coin, while the Landmarks series is cheaper to complete at four 1 oz pieces.

The 1oz silver Austrian Philharmonic represents the pure bullion alternative: the same .999 purity and no mintage limit, with no UK CGT exemption since it is not UK legal tender. For non-UK buyers the Philharmonic's lower premium is hard to argue against. For UK buyers, the CGT exemption shared by the Landmarks series and the Britannia tilts the comparison towards the Royal Mint coins, with the choice between those two coming down to whether the mintage cap is worth the extra premium.