Queen's Beasts Silver

The Queen's Beasts Silver Collection

The Queen's Beasts is a ten-coin heraldic series issued by The Royal Mint from 2016 to 2021, celebrating the ten plaster statues that flanked the entrance to Westminster Abbey at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. Each coin depicts one of the heraldic beasts that represent the Queen's ancestry through centuries of British royal lineage. The series concluded with an eleventh "Completer Coin" in April 2021 featuring all ten beasts on a single design, making it a closed collection with fixed supply on the secondary market.

The silver Queen's Beasts are notable for two reasons. First, the standard silver format is 2 oz, not 1 oz. This was the first time the Royal Mint issued a two-ounce silver bullion coin, and the format became a defining feature of the series. The 2 oz silver Queen's Beasts is the most widely traded piece. Second, the silver coins are struck in .9999 fine silver, higher than the .999 standard used by the silver Britannia.

As UK legal tender, all Queen's Beasts coins are CGT-exempt for UK residents, regardless of metal. This places them alongside the Britannia, Sovereign, and Tudor Beasts as tax-efficient bullion. The combination of CGT exemption, .9999 purity, a distinctive 2 oz format, and a completed ten-design collection has driven secondary market premiums upward since the series ended in 2021. Early-year releases, particularly the Lion of England (2016), command the highest premiums.

The series also includes the 10 oz silver Queen's Beasts and a 1 Kilo silver Queen's Beasts, both of which carry higher absolute premiums but lower premiums per ounce for buyers seeking larger denominations.

Queen's Beasts Silver Denominations

All coins have a milled edge and bear the Jody Clark portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse. Jody Clark also designed all ten beast reverses, making him responsible for both sides of every coin in the series.

The Ten Beasts

Security Features

A guilloche patterned background was added from the 2018 Black Bull onward, providing a braided-ribbon geometric pattern that adds visual depth and acts as an anti-counterfeiting measure. The four-feature security suite (surface animation, latent image, tincture lines, micro-text) used on modern Britannias is not present on Queen's Beasts coins.

Queen's Beasts Tax Treatment by Country

As UK legal tender coins from The Royal Mint, the Queen's Beasts have favourable tax treatment in the United Kingdom and straightforward investment bullion treatment in other jurisdictions.

United Kingdom

All Queen's Beasts coins, in gold, silver, and platinum, are CGT-exempt for UK residents because they are UK legal tender. This is one of the primary reasons the series commands strong premiums on the secondary market. Gold coins are also VAT-free under the investment gold exemption. Silver and platinum coins carry 20% VAT on purchase, the standard rate for all silver bullion in the UK. The 2 oz silver format means a higher absolute VAT cost per coin compared to a 1 oz alternative like the Britannia, though the per-ounce cost is the same.

United States

No federal sales tax. State-level sales tax varies. Queen's Beasts coins are not specifically listed as IRA-eligible under IRS Section 408(m), which names only US Mint products and certain approved foreign coins. US investors should confirm eligibility with their custodian before purchasing for retirement account purposes. Capital gains on silver are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%.

Canada

Silver at 99.9% purity or higher is GST/HST-exempt. The .9999 purity of the 2 oz coin comfortably qualifies. Capital gains follow the 50% inclusion rate.

Australia

Investment-grade silver at 99.9% purity or higher is GST-free. The .9999 purity of the standard 2 oz coin meets this threshold. A 50% CGT discount applies for holdings over 12 months.

European Union

Gold Queen's Beasts coins are VAT-exempt across the EU under the investment gold directive. Silver coins are subject to the standard VAT rate of the member state (17-27%). The margin scheme may apply on the secondary market in some EU countries.

Singapore and Hong Kong

Singapore exempts qualifying silver coins (99.9%+ purity, legal tender) from GST under the IPM scheme. Hong Kong charges no sales tax, import duty, or capital gains tax on silver bullion.

From Coronation Statues to Bullion Coins

The story begins in 1953, when sculptor James Woodford RA carved ten six-foot plaster statues for the entrance to Westminster Abbey, each representing a heraldic beast from Queen Elizabeth II's ancestral line. The statues traced her lineage through the great royal and noble houses of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, from Richard I's Lion of England through Henry VII's Welsh Dragon to the Hanoverian White Horse that connects to the current Windsor line.

After the coronation, the original statues were dispersed. Several went to Kew Gardens in London, while others ended up at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa. In 2016, the Royal Mint began translating these heraldic beasts into bullion coins, with Jody Clark designing all ten reverses. Clark was the natural choice: he had already designed the fifth definitive coinage portrait of the Queen that appears on the obverse of every coin in the series.

The first release, the Lion of England in March 2016, was exclusively distributed in North America by Wholesale Direct Metals before becoming available worldwide. Two beasts were released each year through 2021, when the White Greyhound of Richmond was followed by the Completer Coin showing all ten beasts arranged around a central shield. A gold proof version of the Completer in 10 kg was issued with a face value of £10,000.

Each beast holds a shield bearing the royal arms or dynastic badge it represents. The Lion of England holds the royal arms. The Unicorn of Scotland supports the Scottish lion rampant. The Yale of Beaufort, a mythical creature with swivelling horns, was the personal supporter of Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII's mother. These are not generic animals but specific heraldic charges with centuries of documented usage in British royal symbolism.

The series has a spiritual successor in the Tudor Beasts (2022-2026), which applies the same approach to the ten heraldic beasts of the Tudor dynasty. The Tudor Beasts use the same formats (2 oz silver, 1 oz gold) and carry the same UK CGT exemption.

Queen's Beasts vs Britannia, Tudor Beasts, and Philharmonic

For UK buyers, the most relevant comparison is with the silver Britannia. Both are CGT-exempt UK legal tender coins. The Britannia is an ongoing series with unlimited mintage and lower premiums, available in a 1 oz standard format. The Queen's Beasts is a completed series with fixed supply in a 2 oz format, commanding higher premiums but offering collector value and the potential for appreciation as secondary market supply tightens. The Britannia also has a more advanced security suite from 2021 onward (surface animation, latent image, tincture lines, micro-text), which the Queen's Beasts lacks.

The Tudor Beasts (2022-2026) is the direct successor series from the Royal Mint, using the same heraldic-beasts concept but applied to the ten creatures of the Tudor dynasty. Tudor Beasts share the 2 oz silver format, .9999 purity, and CGT exemption. For collectors who missed the Queen's Beasts at issue price, the Tudor Beasts offer a similar proposition at current market premiums rather than the inflated secondary market prices that some Queen's Beasts command.

Against the Austrian Silver Philharmonic, the comparison is primarily about premium versus tax efficiency. The Philharmonic is consistently one of the lowest-premium sovereign silver coins available, but it offers no CGT exemption for UK buyers. For UK investors, the CGT exemption on a Queen's Beasts 2 oz coin can save more on disposal than the higher purchase premium costs, depending on the holding period and the gain realised.

The Royal Mint Lunar coins offer another CGT-exempt alternative with annual design changes, but in a 1 oz format and with the significant caveat that bullion-grade silver Lunar coins were discontinued after 2020. Post-2020 Lunar releases are proof and brilliant uncirculated only, at substantially higher premiums than the Queen's Beasts' bullion-grade pricing.