On Monday, July 24, The Royal Mint, official maker of UK coins, unveiled a set of commemorative coins celebrating music pioneers The Police. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the band’s classic, triple-GRAMMY-winning album Synchronicity, this release marks the first time The Royal Mint have honored The Police on an official UK coin.
The coin’s design, personally approved by the band and created by Heena Glover, pays tribute to Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland by featuring three silhouettes to represent the masters behind one of the greatest bands in British music history.
In a special nod to the iconic artwork for the band’s 1983 album Synchronicity, the colors red, blue, and yellow feature on a selection of coins in the collection. Using the latest innovative colour printing techniques, The Royal Mint’s craftspeople have successfully added these colors onto the coin in vivid detail, bringing the design to life.
Heena Glover, The Police coin’s designer said of her design:
“The key part was to make sure it reflected the band’s DNA and the magic they produced when they got together as a band. Identifying the key values and individual contribution, was also good starting point. It is always challenging to work to such a small scale, and at the same time to design a coin that is instantly recognisable and desirable to both The Police fans and other coin collectors. It was important to portray the band’s energy and innovation, which I trust comes through in this coin.”
Rebecca Morgan, Director of Commemorative Coin at The Royal Mint said:
“With a music legacy spanning nearly half a century, The Police have undoubtedly paved themselves as music legends with their unique sound and impressive string of chart-topping hits. It is for this very reason The Police take centre stage on their own collectable coin as part of The Royal Mint’s Music Legends coin series. The Police collectable coin serves as a permanent tribute to the band’s ground-breaking career, and we hope fans of The Police across the world are pleased with this sensational design.”
Previous coins in The Royal Mint’s Music Legends series have celebrated Queen, Elton John, David Bowie, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and, most recently, Dame Shirley Bassey.
Formed in 1977, The Police were an iconic live band that galvanised a peerless studio sound out of their otherworldly performances. Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Andy Summers played with both the improvisational instincts of a jazz trio and the raw energy of a punk rock band. Together they released five studio albums, sold over 50 million albums worldwide and earned six GRAMMY Awards, two BRITs, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2019, Sting was honoured at the BMI Pop Awards for his enduring hit single with The Police, “Every Breath You Take”. With over 15 million radio plays, the song has become the Most Performed Song from BMI’s catalogue of over 14 million musical works. The song has also been added to Spotify’s ‘Billions Club’, having amassed over one billion streams on the platform.
Each design is available as gold Proof, silver Proof, Brilliant Uncirculated and colour Brilliant Uncirculated editions from The Royal Mint’s website.
