Barber Osgerby designs London Underground £2 coin

Barber Osgerby has designed a £2 coin for the Royal Mint, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the London Underground.

The Barber Osgerby designed reverse
The Barber Osgerby designed reverse

The coin shows a tube train emerging from a tunnel and carries a patterned edging inspired by Harry Beck’s tube map design.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby say, ‘As well as being the oldest underground railway in the world, as an organisation the London Underground has been highly progressive, commissioning pioneering engineering, architecture and art.’

Two £2 coins have been struck by the mint – the other has been designed by Edwina Ellis and features the roundel underground logo which first featured on the Underground in 1908.

It wasn’t until 1916 that Edward Johnston added the Underground typeface to the bar of the roundel.

Edwina Ellis' reverse design features the Underground roundel
Edwina Ellis’ reverse design features the Underground roundel

Ellis’ coin is inscripted with the Underground’s advice ‘Mind The Gap’ around its edging, and forms part of a composition, which Ellis says ‘shifts various elements from a treasure trove of graphics, imagery and engineering that forms one of the oldest existant corporate identities.

‘Edward Johnston’s 1916 lettering and his 1920 bulls-eye logo still represent the Underground.’

The set of coins are struck as Brilliant Uncirculated priced £20, Silver Proof priced £100, Silver Piedfort priced £200, and Gold proof  priced £2000.

The obverse design of the coins
The obverse design of the coins

Each set will be availiable next year and comes in a presentation folder designed by Royal Mint in-house graphic designer David Knapton, and includes a fold-out full colour poster featuring ‘Tales from the Tube’ and facts about each Underground line.

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