The Gay Pride 50p coin was issued by The Royal Mint (TRM) in June 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Pride UK. The coin marks the first time Britain’s LGBTQ+ community has been celebrated on official UK coinage, and forms part of TRM’s wider commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The objective of the design was to celebrate the history of the Gay Pride movement and accurately represent the LGBTQ+ community, whilst promoting positivity and solidarity in the process.
The design process started back in In August 2020, when Pride UK held an online digital art exhibition that displayed the work of 52 artists from the LGBTQ+ community, selected from hundreds of submissions in a national competition held by Pride in London. Following the exhibition, TRM invited the 52 to participate in a competition to create a reverse design for the UK 50p coin, enlisting Pride of London as an external partner.
The winning designer was Dominique Holmes, an east London artist, writer and LGBTQ+ activist. His design uses a series of rainbows to reflect the movement’s values of protest, visibility, unity and equality.
