Over 500 years late… Richard III’s lost commemorative coin, 3D printed

Over 500 years late… Richard III’s lost commemorative coin, 3D printed

A small start-up based near Richmond Park, London, is using space-age technology to right a 530-year wrong by 3D printing commemorative coins for his reburial.

“You can’t help feeling that he got dealt a bad hand by history. Weren’t all the medieval kings mad, bad and dangerous to know?” said Howard Benjafield, one of RichmondMint.com’s founders.

RichmondMint.com is offering a 3D printed coin with the forensically reconstructed face of the last Plantagenet king and features the inscription: Richard III 1452-1485-2015 Leicester Cathedral. It is 3D printed in high quality resin and then gilded with 24-carat gold and beautifully mounted in a black frame. (richmondmint.com/richard-iii)

This is a one-off for the company – its real business is in creating meaningful personalised framed gold and silver coins for those ‘impossible to buy for’ parents, relatives and friends. “We are trying to solve the age-old problem of what to get someone that is beautiful, meaningful and personal… so we thought, why not let people upload their own photo and write something they want to write? We can then turn it into a beautifully framed 3D gold or silver coin,” Mr Benjafield said. As the coins can be imprinted with dates, they make the perfect gift to mark special events such as weddings and christenings.

Of the Richard III coin, Mr Benjafield added: “We have got a bit of stick that a company with ‘Richmond’ in the title is doing a coin for Richard III, it was just a coincidence. But when you think about it, it kind of makes sense. Squares the circle so to speak. Anyway, Richard was made Lord of Richmond (York) in 1461.”

For more information, contact:

Richmond.Mint.Coins@gmail.com