Diana Lingers On

Last week my Blogging Pal and numismatic neighbor, George Cuhaj, wrote a nice posting on the anniversary of Princess Diana's death. George noted that Princess Di has been immortalized on coins, stamps and at least one fantasy banknote. Check out George's Blog posting for illustrations, more links and his experienced take on sculpture. When he was writing this posting, George asked my opinion on what coins to illustrate and I suggested my favorite off the wall Diana coin, which is a 10 Dollar silver piece from Liberia, KM#350, showing Diana wearing protective gear and observing a minefield. There is a similar coin type listed for Mongolia, KM#202, a 500 Tugrik, though I have never seen that piece.

One area that George did not cover in his Blog posting was Diana medals. So when the Coincraft special flyer from Richard Lobel arrived a few days ago serendipity lent a hand.

Coincraft is offering an unusually large gold Memorial Medal of Princess Diana. The obverse sports a nice depiction of Diana facing right with birth and death dates of 1961-1997 below. The obverse legend reads: IN MEMORY OF DIANA PRINCESS OF WALES. The reverse identifies the medal as Princess Diana's Pattern Gold Fifty Pounds and notes it as a Milestones of the Millennium piece. The weights and measures are included at the bottom of the reverse. At five ounces of .999 fine gold this piece carries about $3400 in melt value alone. Coincraft is offering the medal at 1,870 pounds or about $3780, just about $400 over melt.

Of course this isn't the only Di medal available for collectors. If you are looking for something less weighty, try eBay or look at the other Diana Medals offered through Coincraft's website.