Share
Like the heraldic lion, give your portfolio the exact iconic addition that ensures longevity and trust! Buy this silver coin today from BOLD!
| Quantity | Cash/Check | Credit Card | Paypal/Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - 1 | $69.11 | $72.01 | $72.91 |
Share
The 2025 1 oz British Lion Silver Coin (BU) marks the debut of an entirely new bullion series from The Royal Mint, one of the world's oldest sovereign mints, with over 1,100 years of continuous coinage history behind it. Struck in one troy ounce of .999 fine silver to Brilliant Uncirculated standard, it carries official British legal tender status with a face value of £2 GBP, fully backed by the UK Government.
Worldwide mintage is capped at 50,000 coins, significantly scarcer than the annual Britannia, which carries no mintage limit, yet accessible enough to hold broad market appeal. This is the inaugural release. The British Lion Series has been introduced as a new annual program built around one of Britain's most enduring national symbols, the lion that has appeared in British heraldry for over 900 years. For collectors who followed the new Royal Mint series from their first year, the Britannia, the Queen's Beasts, the Royal Tudor Beasts, the Myths & Legends, the pattern is consistent: the inaugural coin is the key piece.
The British Lion Series is The Royal Mint's newest dedicated bullion coin program, launched in 2025. Where Britannia celebrates Lady Britannia, Britain's female personification of national strength, the British Lion Series focuses on Britain's heraldic lion, the country's most ancient and widely recognised symbol of sovereign authority.
Unlike the commemorative Queen's Beasts and Royal Tudor Beasts programs, both of which ran defined series with fixed endpoints, the British Lion is conceived as an ongoing annual program in the tradition of the Britannia, with each year's design offering a new interpretation of the lion by The Royal Mint's design team.
The 2025 coin is the first. For collectors who entered the Queen's Beasts at its 2016 inaugural release or the Royal Tudor Beasts at its 2022 launch, the dynamic is familiar: inaugural-year coins from new Royal Mint series consistently attract the strongest secondary market premiums as the series builds its collector following. The 2025 British Lion is Series 1.
One clarification worth noting: the British Lion Series is distinct from The Royal Mint's separate British Lion and American Eagle series, a collaboration with former U.S. Mint Chief Engraver John Mercanti, also launched in 2025, featuring both national symbols on the same reverse. The British Lion Series features only the British lion, with a reverse designed solely by David Lawrence.
The reverse was designed by David Lawrence, one of The Royal Mint's most accomplished contemporary coin sculptors, and the same artist behind the 2022 Lion of England in the Royal Tudor Beasts Series. His lion work across two distinct Royal Mint programs makes him the definitive modern numismatic sculptor of the British lion in silver.
The 2025 composition depicts the British lion in a commanding seated pose, body angled left, filling the coin's central field with authority. The posture is not passive. The lion's jaws are parted in a full roar, teeth visible, expressing Britain's historic assertion of national strength. Its right forepaw rests on a circular shield, invoking the heraldic tradition of the lion as guardian and defender of the realm. The left-facing orientation aligns with the Charles III obverse portrait, creating a coherent visual relationship between both faces of the coin.
The background field carries the Union Flag surface animation, a micro-engraved pattern that replicates the combined crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick, shifting and appearing to move as the coin tilts in the light. The effect serves two purposes simultaneously. Aesthetically, it places Britain's national symbol within the context of the nation's modern identity. As a security measure, the micro-engraving is effectively impossible to replicate without industrial-grade minting equipment, making the coin counterfeit-resistant in retail transactions.
Reverse inscriptions are deliberately minimal, allowing the lion to dominate the field: weight and purity read "1 OZ FINE SILVER 999."
The obverse carries the first definitive coinage portrait of His Majesty King Charles III, created by British sculptor Martin Jennings, born July 31, 1957, in Arundel, West Sussex.
The Royal Mint unveiled Jennings' portrait on September 30, 2022, just three weeks after the death of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8. Personally approved by King Charles III, it is the most consequential coin portrait commission in British numismatics since the 1952 portrait of Elizabeth II: the image that will appear on all British coinage throughout Charles III's reign, from 1p circulation coins to premium bullion.
The portrait faces left, continuing an unbroken tradition stretching back to the reign of Charles II, in which each British monarch faces the opposite direction to their predecessor. Queen Elizabeth II faced right throughout her seventy-year reign; Charles III therefore faces left. It is one of the longest-running conventions in Western numismatics.
The portrait depicts Charles III without a crown, following the convention for male British monarchs on standard coinage. The obverse legend reads "CHARLES III · D · G · REX · F · D · 2 POUNDS", an abbreviated Latin inscription translating as: "Charles III, by the Grace of God, King, Defender of the Faith, Two Pounds." Jennings' initials appear beneath the monarch's neck on the coin.
Martin Jennings works in the figurative tradition in bronze and stone, and is best known for his major public sculptures of British literary and cultural figures, among them his statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras International (2007), Philip Larkin at Hull Paragon Interchange (2010), and Mary Seacole at St Thomas' Hospital, London (2016). His portrait of Charles III was modelled primarily from photographs, drawing inspiration from the kingly portraits of George VI and Edward VIII from the 1930s. Of the commission, Jennings observed: "It is the smallest work I have created, but it is humbling to know it will be seen and held by people around the world for centuries to come."
The same portrait also appears on Royal Mail stamps bearing Charles III's image, the first time since the 1940s that an unmodified effigy has appeared on both British coins and stamps.
The lion has been the defining emblem of British royal authority for over 900 years, and the 2025 British Lion coin draws directly on that unbroken tradition.
The earliest documented connection between lions and British royalty dates to 1128, when Henry I, known to history as the "Lion of Justice" for his judicial and administrative reforms, gave his son-in-law Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, a shield bearing golden lions at Geoffrey's knighting. That heraldic gift is now considered one of the earliest known examples of formal heraldry in Western Europe.
As the Plantagenet dynasty assumed the English throne, the lion emblem evolved with it. Henry I's grandson, Richard I, "the Lionheart," reigned 1189–1199, is credited with establishing the definitive form still recognisable today: three gold lions walking past but facing the viewer, arranged vertically on a red field. In the specialised language of heraldry, the blazon reads: "Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or, armed and langued azure." The three-lion composition appeared on Richard I's Great Seal by 1198, possibly representing his three principal titles as King of England, Duke of Normandy, and Duke of Aquitaine, and has formed the basis of English and later British royal heraldry ever since.
The lion has appeared on British coinage almost continuously since the medieval period. It forms part of the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom, the formal quartered coat of arms still used today, displaying three golden Plantagenet lions in the first and fourth quarters alongside the red rampant lion of Scotland. It appears on the Royal Standard flown wherever the sovereign is present, on the reverses of multiple British coin series, on state regalia, and as the heraldic crest of more British institutions than any other single symbol.
Furthermore, the lion holds a central place in British cultural identity globally, a status reinforced by Winston Churchill's wartime rhetoric, centuries of heraldic tradition, and the continued use of lion imagery across British institutions from the Bank of England to the British Museum.
| Series | Years | Lion Design | Designer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen's Beasts | 2016–2021 | Lion of England (Series opener) | Jody Clark |
| Royal Tudor Beasts | 2022–ongoing | Lion of England | David Lawrence |
| British Lion Series | 2025– | The British Lion (inaugural) | David Lawrence |
David Lawrence's continuity across the Royal Tudor Beasts and the new British Lion Series carries particular weight for collectors. His interpretation of the lion has defined The Royal Mint's lion imagery throughout the 2020s, and the 2025 British Lion coin represents the fullest expression of that work, a coin where the lion is not one beast among many, but the entire subject.
One troy ounce of .999 fine silver, investment-grade purity equivalent to American Silver Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs. The coin carries British legal tender status (£2 GBP), with UK Government backing that provides global liquidity. The Royal Mint, established 886 AD, is one of the world's oldest and most trusted sovereign mints. For UK buyers, the coin is Capital Gains Tax exempt under current UK tax law, as a Royal Mint legal tender coin, regardless of the size of any gain on sale. IRA eligible: meets IRS requirements for inclusion in a Precious Metals IRA, .999 fine silver, sovereign legal tender, produced by a recognised government mint.
The 2025 British Lion is the inaugural release in a new Royal Mint bullion series, the most consequential position in any Royal Mint program for long-term collector demand. The 50,000 mintage sits well below the unlimited Britannia while remaining accessible to a wide collector base. The Union Flag surface animation applies the same micro-engraving innovation seen on the modern Britannia to a new design canvas. David Lawrence's designer continuity across multiple Royal Mint lion series creates a natural collecting theme, and all Charles III-era Royal Mint coins, in their association with the first definitive Jennings portrait, form a defined numismatic generation.
The lion is Britain's most universally recognised national symbol, a natural fit for British heritage occasions, royal enthusiasts, and expressions of UK patriotism. The combination of nine centuries of heraldic tradition and the modern Union Flag animation makes this coin visually compelling in a way standard bullion cannot match. Individual coins arrive in a protective plastic capsule, presentation-ready without additional packaging.
BOLD Precious Metals is an authorized Royal Mint dealer, PCGS and NGC affiliated, BBB-accredited with a 99.8%+ positive feedback rating. We carry the complete Royal Mint bullion range, including Britannia, Royal Tudor Beasts, Myths & Legends, and the full British Lion Series, and can assist collectors building multi-year or multi-series Royal Mint collections.
Individual coins arrive in protective plastic flips. Multiples of 25 ship in sealed Royal Mint tubes; 500-coin orders ship in Monster Boxes. Free, fully insured domestic shipping on all orders of $199 or more.
📧 support@boldpreciousmetals.com 📞 1(866) 454-BOLD
The 2025 1 oz British Lion Silver Coin (BU) marks the debut of an entirely new bullion series from The Royal Mint, one of the world's oldest sovereign mints, with over 1,100 years of continuous coinage history behind it. Struck in one troy ounce of .999 fine silver to Brilliant Uncirculated standard, it carries official British legal tender status with a face value of £2 GBP, fully backed by the UK Government.
Worldwide mintage is capped at 50,000 coins, significantly scarcer than the annual Britannia, which carries no mintage limit, yet accessible enough to hold broad market appeal. This is the inaugural release. The British Lion Series has been introduced as a new annual program built around one of Britain's most enduring national symbols, the lion that has appeared in British heraldry for over 900 years. For collectors who followed the new Royal Mint series from their first year, the Britannia, the Queen's Beasts, the Royal Tudor Beasts, the Myths & Legends, the pattern is consistent: the inaugural coin is the key piece.
The British Lion Series is The Royal Mint's newest dedicated bullion coin program, launched in 2025. Where Britannia celebrates Lady Britannia, Britain's female personification of national strength, the British Lion Series focuses on Britain's heraldic lion, the country's most ancient and widely recognised symbol of sovereign authority.
Unlike the commemorative Queen's Beasts and Royal Tudor Beasts programs, both of which ran defined series with fixed endpoints, the British Lion is conceived as an ongoing annual program in the tradition of the Britannia, with each year's design offering a new interpretation of the lion by The Royal Mint's design team.
The 2025 coin is the first. For collectors who entered the Queen's Beasts at its 2016 inaugural release or the Royal Tudor Beasts at its 2022 launch, the dynamic is familiar: inaugural-year coins from new Royal Mint series consistently attract the strongest secondary market premiums as the series builds its collector following. The 2025 British Lion is Series 1.
One clarification worth noting: the British Lion Series is distinct from The Royal Mint's separate British Lion and American Eagle series, a collaboration with former U.S. Mint Chief Engraver John Mercanti, also launched in 2025, featuring both national symbols on the same reverse. The British Lion Series features only the British lion, with a reverse designed solely by David Lawrence.
The reverse was designed by David Lawrence, one of The Royal Mint's most accomplished contemporary coin sculptors, and the same artist behind the 2022 Lion of England in the Royal Tudor Beasts Series. His lion work across two distinct Royal Mint programs makes him the definitive modern numismatic sculptor of the British lion in silver.
The 2025 composition depicts the British lion in a commanding seated pose, body angled left, filling the coin's central field with authority. The posture is not passive. The lion's jaws are parted in a full roar, teeth visible, expressing Britain's historic assertion of national strength. Its right forepaw rests on a circular shield, invoking the heraldic tradition of the lion as guardian and defender of the realm. The left-facing orientation aligns with the Charles III obverse portrait, creating a coherent visual relationship between both faces of the coin.
The background field carries the Union Flag surface animation, a micro-engraved pattern that replicates the combined crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick, shifting and appearing to move as the coin tilts in the light. The effect serves two purposes simultaneously. Aesthetically, it places Britain's national symbol within the context of the nation's modern identity. As a security measure, the micro-engraving is effectively impossible to replicate without industrial-grade minting equipment, making the coin counterfeit-resistant in retail transactions.
Reverse inscriptions are deliberately minimal, allowing the lion to dominate the field: weight and purity read "1 OZ FINE SILVER 999."
The obverse carries the first definitive coinage portrait of His Majesty King Charles III, created by British sculptor Martin Jennings, born July 31, 1957, in Arundel, West Sussex.
The Royal Mint unveiled Jennings' portrait on September 30, 2022, just three weeks after the death of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8. Personally approved by King Charles III, it is the most consequential coin portrait commission in British numismatics since the 1952 portrait of Elizabeth II: the image that will appear on all British coinage throughout Charles III's reign, from 1p circulation coins to premium bullion.
The portrait faces left, continuing an unbroken tradition stretching back to the reign of Charles II, in which each British monarch faces the opposite direction to their predecessor. Queen Elizabeth II faced right throughout her seventy-year reign; Charles III therefore faces left. It is one of the longest-running conventions in Western numismatics.
The portrait depicts Charles III without a crown, following the convention for male British monarchs on standard coinage. The obverse legend reads "CHARLES III · D · G · REX · F · D · 2 POUNDS", an abbreviated Latin inscription translating as: "Charles III, by the Grace of God, King, Defender of the Faith, Two Pounds." Jennings' initials appear beneath the monarch's neck on the coin.
Martin Jennings works in the figurative tradition in bronze and stone, and is best known for his major public sculptures of British literary and cultural figures, among them his statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras International (2007), Philip Larkin at Hull Paragon Interchange (2010), and Mary Seacole at St Thomas' Hospital, London (2016). His portrait of Charles III was modelled primarily from photographs, drawing inspiration from the kingly portraits of George VI and Edward VIII from the 1930s. Of the commission, Jennings observed: "It is the smallest work I have created, but it is humbling to know it will be seen and held by people around the world for centuries to come."
The same portrait also appears on Royal Mail stamps bearing Charles III's image, the first time since the 1940s that an unmodified effigy has appeared on both British coins and stamps.
The lion has been the defining emblem of British royal authority for over 900 years, and the 2025 British Lion coin draws directly on that unbroken tradition.
The earliest documented connection between lions and British royalty dates to 1128, when Henry I, known to history as the "Lion of Justice" for his judicial and administrative reforms, gave his son-in-law Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, a shield bearing golden lions at Geoffrey's knighting. That heraldic gift is now considered one of the earliest known examples of formal heraldry in Western Europe.
As the Plantagenet dynasty assumed the English throne, the lion emblem evolved with it. Henry I's grandson, Richard I, "the Lionheart," reigned 1189–1199, is credited with establishing the definitive form still recognisable today: three gold lions walking past but facing the viewer, arranged vertically on a red field. In the specialised language of heraldry, the blazon reads: "Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or, armed and langued azure." The three-lion composition appeared on Richard I's Great Seal by 1198, possibly representing his three principal titles as King of England, Duke of Normandy, and Duke of Aquitaine, and has formed the basis of English and later British royal heraldry ever since.
The lion has appeared on British coinage almost continuously since the medieval period. It forms part of the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom, the formal quartered coat of arms still used today, displaying three golden Plantagenet lions in the first and fourth quarters alongside the red rampant lion of Scotland. It appears on the Royal Standard flown wherever the sovereign is present, on the reverses of multiple British coin series, on state regalia, and as the heraldic crest of more British institutions than any other single symbol.
Furthermore, the lion holds a central place in British cultural identity globally, a status reinforced by Winston Churchill's wartime rhetoric, centuries of heraldic tradition, and the continued use of lion imagery across British institutions from the Bank of England to the British Museum.
| Series | Years | Lion Design | Designer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen's Beasts | 2016–2021 | Lion of England (Series opener) | Jody Clark |
| Royal Tudor Beasts | 2022–ongoing | Lion of England | David Lawrence |
| British Lion Series | 2025– | The British Lion (inaugural) | David Lawrence |
David Lawrence's continuity across the Royal Tudor Beasts and the new British Lion Series carries particular weight for collectors. His interpretation of the lion has defined The Royal Mint's lion imagery throughout the 2020s, and the 2025 British Lion coin represents the fullest expression of that work, a coin where the lion is not one beast among many, but the entire subject.
One troy ounce of .999 fine silver, investment-grade purity equivalent to American Silver Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs. The coin carries British legal tender status (£2 GBP), with UK Government backing that provides global liquidity. The Royal Mint, established 886 AD, is one of the world's oldest and most trusted sovereign mints. For UK buyers, the coin is Capital Gains Tax exempt under current UK tax law, as a Royal Mint legal tender coin, regardless of the size of any gain on sale. IRA eligible: meets IRS requirements for inclusion in a Precious Metals IRA, .999 fine silver, sovereign legal tender, produced by a recognised government mint.
The 2025 British Lion is the inaugural release in a new Royal Mint bullion series, the most consequential position in any Royal Mint program for long-term collector demand. The 50,000 mintage sits well below the unlimited Britannia while remaining accessible to a wide collector base. The Union Flag surface animation applies the same micro-engraving innovation seen on the modern Britannia to a new design canvas. David Lawrence's designer continuity across multiple Royal Mint lion series creates a natural collecting theme, and all Charles III-era Royal Mint coins, in their association with the first definitive Jennings portrait, form a defined numismatic generation.
The lion is Britain's most universally recognised national symbol, a natural fit for British heritage occasions, royal enthusiasts, and expressions of UK patriotism. The combination of nine centuries of heraldic tradition and the modern Union Flag animation makes this coin visually compelling in a way standard bullion cannot match. Individual coins arrive in a protective plastic capsule, presentation-ready without additional packaging.
BOLD Precious Metals is an authorized Royal Mint dealer, PCGS and NGC affiliated, BBB-accredited with a 99.8%+ positive feedback rating. We carry the complete Royal Mint bullion range, including Britannia, Royal Tudor Beasts, Myths & Legends, and the full British Lion Series, and can assist collectors building multi-year or multi-series Royal Mint collections.
Individual coins arrive in protective plastic flips. Multiples of 25 ship in sealed Royal Mint tubes; 500-coin orders ship in Monster Boxes. Free, fully insured domestic shipping on all orders of $199 or more.
📧 support@boldpreciousmetals.com 📞 1(866) 454-BOLD
Affiliations
Copyright BOLD Precious Metals 2026
