2 oz Tudor Beasts Silver Coin

The 2 oz Tudor Beasts Silver Coin

The Tudor Beasts is a ten-coin series from The Royal Mint, released across five years from 2022 to 2026 with two new designs each year. It is the direct successor to the Queen's Beasts series and draws its heraldry from the stone beast statues on the Moat Bridge of Hampton Court Palace, originally commissioned by Henry VIII.

The 2 oz silver format continues the precedent set by the Queen's Beasts, which introduced the first ever 2 oz UK silver bullion coin in 2016. Tudor Beasts silver coins are struck in 9999 fine silver, matching the Queen's Beasts and exceeding the Silver Britannia's 999 standard. This four-nines purity is a consistent differentiator across the Royal Mint's "beasts" franchise.

All ten reverses are designed by David Lawrence, an illustrator and sculptor with more than 30 years of experience. Each beast holds a shield bearing Tudor heraldic arms, interpreted in a more dynamic, detailed style than the Queen's Beasts' cleaner heraldic approach. The guilloche background pattern, a geometric lattice that doubles as a counterfeiting deterrent, appears on all bullion versions.

For UK buyers, the Tudor Beasts combines three advantages that few silver coins offer simultaneously: CGT exemption through UK legal tender status, 9999 purity, and a collectible annual-design format. The Royal Mint positions the Tudor Beasts for the collector-investor crossover market, distinct from the Britannia's role as a core bullion product.

Tudor Beasts Silver Denominations

The Ten Beasts and Release Schedule

The series straddles the transition from Queen Elizabeth II to King Charles III. The 2022 coins carry the Jody Clark portrait of Elizabeth II, while coins from 2023 onwards bear the Martin Jennings portrait of Charles III. Collectors seeking matched sets of both portrait variants can find them on early designs.

Tudor Beasts Silver Tax Treatment

The 2 oz Tudor Beasts carries a GBP 5 face value and is legal tender of the United Kingdom. This status drives its most significant tax advantage.

United Kingdom

All Tudor Beasts coins, across gold, silver, and platinum, are exempt from Capital Gains Tax for UK residents. This applies to all denominations in the series. Silver coins are still subject to 20% VAT on purchase, which creates a break-even calculation: the CGT exemption only outweighs the initial VAT cost if the eventual gain is substantial enough. For long-term holders expecting meaningful silver price appreciation, the CGT exemption makes the Tudor Beasts one of the most tax-efficient silver products available in the UK.

The Tudor Beasts shares this CGT exemption with the Queen's Beasts and Silver Britannia. Foreign silver coins, including the Perth Lunar and Canadian Maple Leaf, do not qualify.

United States

Tudor Beasts coins are not IRA-eligible. Only US Mint products and certain approved foreign coins qualify for precious metals IRAs. Capital gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28% federal. State sales tax exemptions vary, with approximately 35 states exempting bullion.

Canada and Australia

Standard GST/HST (Canada) and GST (Australia) apply to silver purchases. No CGT exemption. Capital gains follow local rules: 50% inclusion rate in Canada, 50% CGT discount for assets held over 12 months in Australia.

European Union

Silver Tudor Beasts attract VAT at local standard rates. Gold versions are VAT-exempt under the EU Investment Gold Directive. Germany's margin scheme (Differenzbesteuerung) may reduce effective VAT on secondary market coins. A growing collector market exists in Germany and the Netherlands.

Singapore and Hong Kong

Singapore's Investment Precious Metals scheme exempts silver at 999 purity or finer from GST; the Tudor Beasts at 9999 qualifies. Hong Kong has no sales tax or capital gains tax on bullion.

Tudor Heraldry on the Moat Bridge

Hampton Court Palace, located on the Thames west of London, was originally built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey from 1514. Henry VIII acquired the palace in 1529 and made it one of his primary residences. The Moat Bridge, the main entrance to the palace across the moat, was decorated with ten heraldic beast statues representing the Tudor dynasty's lineage and alliances.

The original Tudor-era statues deteriorated over the centuries. The current statues on the Moat Bridge are 20th-century replicas, carved in the 1930s by sculptor Joseph Cribb. They stand as faithful reproductions of the originals, maintaining the poses and heraldic details that Henry VIII's craftsmen established five centuries ago.

The Royal Mint announced the Tudor Beasts series on 7 October 2021, with the Seymour Panther as the first design. Bullion sales began in 2022. David Lawrence was selected to design all ten reverses, bringing a different artistic sensibility than Jody Clark's work on the Queen's Beasts. Lawrence's beasts are depicted in a more dynamic, detailed style with intricate rendering of fur, scales, and heraldic devices.

The series has a notable historical dimension: it spans the reign transition from Elizabeth II to Charles III. The Seymour Panther and Lion of England (both 2022) carry the last Elizabeth II portraits to appear on a Royal Mint beast series. From the Yale of Beaufort (2023) onwards, the Martin Jennings portrait of Charles III takes over the obverse. This dual-portrait characteristic has created additional collector interest, with some buyers assembling matched sets of both portrait variants for the 2022 designs.

The Royal Mint runs the Tudor Beasts concurrently with the Britannia series, positioning them for different buyer segments. The Britannia serves core bullion demand with its four-feature security suite and global recognition. The Tudor Beasts targets the collector-investor crossover market, where the annually changing designs and limited production window add collectible appeal on top of the metal value.

Tudor Beasts 2 oz vs Queen's Beasts, Britannia, and Perth Lunar

The 2 oz Tudor Beasts competes most directly with three other silver products: the 2 oz Queen's Beasts, the 1 oz Silver Britannia, and the 2 oz Perth Lunar.

The Queen's Beasts is the most natural comparison. Both are Royal Mint heraldic series at 9999 silver purity with CGT exemption in the UK. The Queen's Beasts traced ancestry across all British dynasties; the Tudor Beasts focuses specifically on the Tudor era. Jody Clark designed the Queen's Beasts; David Lawrence designed the Tudor Beasts. The critical practical difference is that the Queen's Beasts is a completed series (2016-2021) with fixed supply, while the Tudor Beasts remains in production through 2026. For new buyers entering the 2 oz Royal Mint silver market, the Tudor Beasts offers current-year availability at standard bullion pricing, without the secondary market premiums that some Queen's Beasts designs now carry.

Against the Britannia, the Tudor Beasts trades security features for purity and collectibility. The Britannia benefits from the Royal Mint's four-feature anti-counterfeiting suite (surface animation, latent image, tincture lines, micro-text) introduced in 2021. The Tudor Beasts has only the guilloche background. On the other hand, the Tudor Beasts offers 9999 purity versus the Britannia's 999, and its annually changing designs create a collector dimension that the Britannia, despite introducing annual reverse designs from 2022, treats as secondary to its bullion identity. Both share CGT exemption.

The Perth Lunar at 2 oz provides an international alternative. Series III coins match the Tudor Beasts at 9999 purity and also feature annually changing designs, following the Chinese zodiac. The Perth Lunar has micro-laser security engraving. The decisive difference for UK buyers is tax treatment: the Perth Lunar lacks CGT exemption in the UK, making the Tudor Beasts the clear choice for British silver investors who plan to sell at a profit. Outside the UK, the Perth Lunar's zodiac themes have stronger recognition in Asian-Pacific markets, while the Tudor Beasts' appeal centres on British heraldic history.

The Tudor Beasts also adds a 1 oz silver option that the Queen's Beasts never offered at bullion level, making the series more accessible to buyers who prefer the standard 1 oz silver coin format.