Royal Mint release Agatha Christie £2 coin to celebrate 100 years of murder mysteries

15 September 2020, 16:20

By Alice Dear

Royal Mint have remembered the iconic crime writer with a special £2, complete with a puzzle design.

100 years after the first Agatha Christie book was published, Royal Mint are honouring the author with a £2 coin, designed by David Lawrence.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie was first published in 1920, with the author then going on to release 66 detective novels and 150 short stories in her career.

Agatha Christie, who was born in 1890 in Devon, is now making a mark on a commemorative £2 by Royal Mint.

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The coin reflects the mysterious stories Agatha Christie wrote with a puzzle design, complete with a gun, a knife, a pen and a bottle of poison engraved on the face.

The coin reads around the top '100 Years of Mystery', with the famous author's signature positioned at the bottom.

The coin was designed by David Lawrence, who said of creating the coin: "The Agatha Christie coin was a case in point: a whole genre of mystery, a vast body of work, and a whole host of memorable characters – all to be summed up and squeezed on to one small circle.

“I knew that just one image, scene or character from her work would not do. The coin was about Agatha Christie the person and her incredible creativity – referencing just one element from such a vast body of work would not adequately sum things up."

He continued: “The essence of an ‘Agatha Christie’ is the solving of the riddle, resolving the puzzle. Perhaps some form of metaphor could be found and, in the end, I pursued three strands of ideas: designs involving a chessboard, a maze and a jigsaw.

“The idea which was taken to completion, however, was that of the jigsaw. This turned out to be the best metaphor for an Agatha Christie mystery: the story is gradually pieced together but it is not until the final missing piece is dropped into place that the whole picture can be seen.”

The £2 Brilliant Uncirculated Coin is available to buy for £10.00, while the £2 Silver Proof Coin costs £67.50.

If you want to get your hands on he £2 Silver Proof Piedfort Coin, it will set you back £110, while the £2 Gold Proof Coin comes in at an eye-watering £1,115.

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