Is the lone soldier one crown coin British?

Answer 1

The 2010 Britain's Military Heroes Golden Memorial Crown coin appears to be one of a series of privately minted commemorative coin honouring Britain's military heroes.

The coins were not produced by the Royal Mint and are therefore not legal tender. They may never achieve a value much beyond the value of the metals in the coin.

Additional information - purchaser beware

There appears to be a philanthropic offer by the London Mint Office for a donation of One Pound for every one of these coins sold, to the "Help for Heroes" charity. This however, comes at a price to the purchaser with subsequent unsolicited coins being sent at full price and, with no offer of a donation.

The London Mint Office has nothing to do with the Royal Mint and, judging by the amount of negative correspondence on the internet concerning the London Mint Office, all affected persons are generally recommending that other potentially interested parties avoid the London Mint Office using words like "scam", "unsolicited", "fraud", "complaint" and "trapped".

There are also a number of references to the Consumer Direct website with various explanations of how complainants might deal with the London Mint Office.

Factual information:

Anything described as a coin must be legal tender at the time of release. Anything other is known as a "round", "Medallion", Token" or other such description.

The London Mint Office does offer coins, however there is a deceptive misdirection to do with their releases.

The coins sold by The London Mint Office are as previously noted not issued by the UK Royal Mint, but by a British Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs approval to the Governor of the Tristan da Cunha UK Overseas Territories for Commemorative Coins only.

Such coins are not legal tender in the UK and are in effect commissioned by the Limited Company known as The London Mint Office, for profit.

Currency issued by Tristan da Cunha resulted in a net loss of revenue for the Tristan Government which, after the economic decline in the mid 1990's, was unable to afford to produce further issues.

In November 2004 when, with the approval of the Governor and the Secretary of State, the Tristan Government entered into a five year agreement with the Commonwealth Mint & Philatelic Bureau Ltd (formerly known as London Mint Ltd). This partnership enables Tristan to select and approve designs for proposed issues, with the company arranging production and distribution to collectors via established dealerships worldwide.

Be aware these coins are produced with the sole intent of profiting from collectors. If you like them, buy them, but do not be deceived, they are not from the UK Royal Mint,as such are not legal tender in the UK, and are often sold by the profit making organizations involved for much more than their base metal values.

There is nothing wrong with running a profit-making company, however the London Mint Company does everything it can to portray its goods as official UK coinage releases.