Royal Pound of Kilian & Jalida

Notes

The obverse was based directly on a stamp provided by her majesty and features the initials of their majesties and her majesty’s heraldic lotuses.

The reverse was based on a combination of two historical coins (see Research & Resources, below) to match his majesty’s German persona and feature the Maltese Cross from his heraldry. The cross is surrounded by information on the sovereign’s reign. The reverse writing translates to:

“Kilian * King of the Middle 107 * Society Year 59”

This was by far my finest and most complicated coin to date (which I realized I say for almost every new coin I do, but that is how improvement works haha). The designs were first chased in with punches, then sanded down to remove the raised metal, then gone back over with an engraver and re-polished. It was an extremely time consuming process, coupled with the fact that any mistake meant the entire thing had to be scrapped and restarted (each side took at least 5 tries to get it right).

All that effort was definitely worth the final result though, as all the letters and details pop extremely nicely.

Approximately 600 were presented at the Royal coronation, and I’m sure there are many hundred more to be struck before the reign ends.

UPDATE (5/4/2025)

This past weekend, at the coronation of their heirs Wigthegn II & Neassa II (whose royal pound I also did, link HERE), the dies were retired. I don’t have a final count for the total number of coins struck, but if I were to take a guess I would estimate between 1500 and 2000 total coins were struck. The state of the striking end of the top die definitely supports that estimation.

In addition to many aluminum, pewter, and brass coins, I sought to resurrect a moneying tradition that had fallen out of practice in Midrealm, and struck two pure silver coins, given to their majesties not as largesse, but as a personal gift to them.

The silver was generously provided by warder Damian Nithauk in the form of reclaimed silver dust from silver nitrate, and I was able to get a good number of blanks out of it, enough to provide gift coins to kings and queens for many years to come.

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