Person · PER-B3005AFCE4FB450A
HM Queen Elizabeth II
1 catalogued object connected to HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Reference entry
Biography
Person.
Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022) was the United Kingdom’s longest-reigning monarch. She acceded to the throne in 1952 at the age of twenty-five, and every standard British coin of her reign carried her likeness.
Five principal definitive coinage portraits were introduced over that period, by Mary Gillick, Arnold Machin, Raphael Maklouf, Ian Rank-Broadley and Jody Clark, turning changes in portrait design into a visible chronology of monarchy, ageing and national currency.
Reviewed 2026-08-19Selected sources
- The Royal Mint — Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II’s 1926 birth, 1952 accession, seventy-year reign and the succession of official coinage portraits used during her reign.
- The Royal Mint Museum — Elizabeth II on coinsThe artists and historical sequence of Elizabeth II’s principal coinage portraits and the portrait tradition across her reign.