5 Pounds - Elizabeth II 4th portrait Queen Victoria (2001)

About the 2001 5 Pounds - Elizabeth II – Queen Victoria

The 2001 5 Pounds - Elizabeth II – Queen Victoria is a collector 5 pounds coin, struck in copper-nickel. It weighs 28.28g and measures 38.61mm across. Reverse design: A representation of Crystal Palace within the value FIVE POUNDS, stylised railway lines in the shape of a V incorporating a portrait of Queen Victoria, remnant of the words ONE PENNY and anniversary dates of 1901 and 2001.

851,491 were struck.

Common questions

History and design

Queen Victoria died in 1901, and this crown marks the hundredth anniversary of her death and the end of the Victorian era. The Royal Mint Advisory Committee ran a very limited competition for the design. At its meeting at Goldsmiths' Hall on 30 March 2000 it chose a drawing by Mary Milner Dickens to recommend to the Chancellor. A proclamation given at Buckingham Palace on 13 December 2000 then authorised the coin in gold, silver and cupro-nickel.

The Royal Mint's 2001-02 annual report says the crown went on sale from 21 May 2001 at its face value of five pounds, with sales of around 0.7 million by March 2002. The Mint's striking table gives 851,491 cupro-nickel coins for 2001, the only crown that year. That is the lowest figure for any £5 crown from 1990 to 2005, and well below the 1,407,300 of the 1998 Prince of Wales crown, the lowest of the 1990s.

The reverse packs the era into one composition. The proclamation describes architectural tracery symbolic of the Crystal Palace, divided by stylised railway lines in the shape of a V. Within the V are a portrait of Queen Victoria, a remnant of the words ONE PENNY, and the dates 1901 and 2001. The Mint's 2000-01 report says the design "conveys something of the social, economic and industrial progress of that remarkable era".

Mary Milner Dickens had also designed the Public Libraries 50p of 2000. The obverse carries Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of the Queen with the inscription ELIZABETH.II.D.G REG.F.D and the date. The proclamation gives a grained, or milled, edge.

Collecting notes

The Royal Mint says "Crowns are issued to mark special occasions rather than for use in general circulation", so uncirculated coins are normal. The fine tracery and the small portrait of Victoria are the details that show a weak strike or wear first; check them, then the open areas for contact marks.

The coin is legal tender, though banks and retailers need not accept crowns; the Post Office has agreed to exchange them. Gold and silver versions share the design. The lower figure makes it the scarcest base-metal crown of its period in the Mint's table, though still common in absolute terms.