31 Dec 2013

Bluebells, Lord Kitchener and a cyclist: new coins for 2014

Britain gets five new coins next year. Watch out for these Royal Mint designs turning up in your wallet.

World War One general Lord Kitchener will be seen pointing out the back of £2 coins from the start of January as the famous recruitment poster makes it onto the back of a coin. 2014 marks 100 years since the start of the First World War and the Kitchener coin is the first of a series of five that will commemorate each year of the Great War.

A new 50p coin celebrates the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with a muscular cyclist, a runner and a script inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

And a lighthouse also makes the back of the £2 in a stark design showing a lighthouse lens. It’s a coin that celebrates British seafaring says the Royal Mint and the 500th anniversary of Trinity House lighthouse, built in the reign of Henry VIIIth.

Scotland and Northern Ireland get more customised pound coins – with two native flowers entwined on the back. A flax flower (the symbol of the Northern Irish Assembly) and a shamrock for Northern Ireland.

And a thistle and a bluebell for Scotland.

What else should be on the coins? Tweet us: @channel4news