The Royal Mint marks 100th anniversary of the Titanic with commemorative £5 coin

The Royal Mint has released the Titanic £5 coin in remembrance of the 100th anniversary of the historic ships' maiden voyage in 1912. Designed by Royal Mint engraver, Lee Robert Jones, the coin commemorates a maritime legend.

The Titanic coins depict the instantly recognisable profile of RMS Titanic with the goddess Thane looking down on the ship as it sails through the Atlantic Ocean. Erected on 26th June 1920 as a memorial to all those who died, the marble figure of the goddess stands in Belfast, home of the Harland and Wolff shipyard, the biggest in the world at the time, where Titanic was constructed.

Commenting on his design, Jones said: "My design is concerned with the spectacle of the ship and her story. Thane, the goddess of death, is to reflect the significance of the event; she symbolises respect and sorrow for the loss that ultimately occurred. Her stark silhouette contrasts with the detailed image of Titanic, cutting through the waves with purpose and pride."

The first voyage of RMS Titanic, the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time, began on 10 April 1912, when she set sail from Southampton to New York, with 2,223 people on board. Owned by the White Star Line, the luxurious passenger liner was one of three sister 'Olympic class' ships built to cater for the most elite passengers, her lavish fittings reflecting the opulence and elegance of the Edwardian age.

Late on the morning of 14 April 1912, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg leading to the ship sinking less than three hours later, a disaster that resulted in the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

Commenting on the new coin, Dr Kevin Clancy, Director of The Royal Mint Museum, said: "The story of Titanic has long captured imaginations. The passing of 100 years has not lessened the interest in the tragic outcome of her maiden voyage, the personal stories of those on board or the achievement of the iconic ship as a feat of British engineering. The Royal Mint’s coin will mark this occasion and, we hope, will be passed on to future generations to honour the lives that were lost, underlining the significance of RMS Titanic in British history."

The Titanic Alderney* £5 coin has an uncompromising finish; struck to a higher quality than every day coinage. For more stand-out brilliance you can view silver coins available from the Royal Mint. For further information, please visit www.royalmint.com.

FACTFILE:
*The commemorative £5 coin is issued under the authority of the Channel Island of Alderney. The coin is legal tender in both the Channel Island and the UK, but it will not be issued into circulation. Alderney has issued commemorative coins since 1989.

The Royal Mint has a history dating back over 1,000 years. By the late thirteenth century the organisation was based in the Tower of London, and remained there for over 500 years. By 1812 The Royal Mint had moved out of the Tower to premises on London’s Tower Hill. In 1967 the building of a new Royal Mint began on its current site in Llantrisant, South Wales. There were estimated to be 28.6 billion UK coins in circulation at 31 March 2011, with a total face value of £3.8 billion - all manufactured by The Royal Mint. 1.1 billion UK coins were issued during 2010-11.

The Royal Mint's Llantrisant site was recently chosen to host the Prime Minister David Cameron's first government cabinet meeting in Wales.

ITV To Premier The First Trailer Of Titanic This Christmas

ITV is excited to announce that a special 2 minute trailer for the much anticipated epic mini series TITANIC will be shown for the very first time on ITV1 this Christmas Day.
Written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, TITANIC is the extraordinary re-telling of that doomed voyage as it's never been told before. This is the first time the public will be introduced to some of the characters involved, before they come to screen to commemorate the centenary of the disaster.

The trailer will be shown after Downton Abbey on ITV1 on Christmas Day but viewers can see it ahead of it's premiere on the ITV Player from midday on Friday the 23rd of December.

Rufus Radcliffe Director of Group Marketing and Research commented: "Titanic promises to be a massive TV event in 2012, and what better moment to start building anticipation amongst our viewers than an epic trail coming out of ITV's Downton Abbey Christmas special"

TITANIC weaves action, mystery and romantic narratives featuring fictional and historical characters, before coming together in an explosive finale. Whilst James Cameron's 1997 film was primarily a love story between the two central characters, BAFTA-winning producer Nigel Stafford-Clark was inspired by the hundreds of untold stories of those aboard, and the drama provides a unique portrait of the society which gave birth to the liner, and which was heading as obliviously towards its own nemesis in 1914 as Titanic towards its iceberg.

TITANIC is a Deep Indigo/Sienna Films/Mid Atlantic Films co-production in association with Lookout Point and ITV Studios.

Written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes and directed by Jon Jones (Northanger Abbey, Diary of Anne Frank), the 4 x 60' series is produced by BAFTA-winning Nigel Stafford-Clark (Bleak House, The Passion) and Chris Thompson (The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Love Actually).

Simon Vaughan, Kate Bartlett, Julia Sereny, Jennifer Kawaja, Howard Ellis, Adam Goodman all Executive Produce.

TITANIC features an all-star ensemble cast of leading stage and screen actors, flowing camerawork and interweaving multi-arc storylines, as viewers get to know the multi-class, multi-nationality characters, brought to life by a huge company of no less than 89 actors, including Linus Roache, Celia Imrie, Toby Jones, Geraldine Somerville, Sophie Winkleman and Timothy West.

TITANIC was originated by Nigel Stafford-Clark's Deep Indigo Productions and international co-production specialist Lookout Point, who teamed up with ITV Studios to further develop the project. Working with distributor ITV Studios Global Entertainment, the project has since attracted a host of global partners including US Network ABC and ITV1, the UK's largest commercial broadcaster. The project is produced as a treaty co-production between the UK, Hungary and Canada.

Simon Vaughan, Chief Executive of Lookout Point and Executive Producer of TITANIC explains, "The goal is to mount a global co-production that does not look or feel like one. The material itself straddles the world. Working with ITV Studios Global Entertainment we have pulled together over a dozen separate sources of finance - but we are producing a miniseries with a clear creative voice: an authored piece from a wonderful creative team."

Production designer Rob Harris (Generation Kill, Hornblower, The Devil's Whore) has created an extraordinary 2-tier set, housing a 60m promenade deck, 50m boat deck, 4 working lifeboats, 2 collapsible lifeboats, the ship's bridge and pursers' offices, stairways, 75m of interior corridors and over a dozen separate interior rooms - from boiler rooms to dining rooms, third-class bunkrooms to first-class suites.

Director Jon Jones says, "It's an incredible, evocative playing space. We have built a huge section of the ship, that is jam packed with a warren of rooms arranged to allow us a sense that we have the run of the ship. Once you enter the studio, it is like boarding the ship - you get a real sense of the space. We want to get to grips with how it really was to be confined in a tiny cabin in steerage - or effortlessly ensconced in a First Class stateroom. Our set allows us to really enter that world."

To deliver the key water sequences, the team built the biggest indoor tank in mainland Europe, on the outskirts of Budapest. This vast 900m2 water tank features a sliding immersible section of the ship's deck and interior, and a huge 360º green screen backdrop.

A project of this scale cannot be achieved without CGI, the storylines include scenes in London, the shipyard in Ireland, and the Southampton departure dock and on to open water. VFX Supervisor Tom Turnbull of Rocket Science (The Nativity, The Day of the Triffids, National Treasure) is recreating the huge gantry cranes and the imposing cathedral-like brick and sandstone Victorian building which housed Harland & Wolff's headquarters, and of course the arresting sight of the grandest ship ever built.

Broadcast partners around the globe include ITV1 in the UK, ABC Network in the US, Global Television in Canada, Seven Network in Australia, Antena 3 in Spain, TV3 in Ireland, Network Seven in Australia, SVT in Sweden, TVNZ in New Zealand and SIC in Portugal.

The drama is executive produced by Lookout Point's Simon Vaughan (Ben Hur, Coco Chanel, The Hot Zone (working title)) together with ITV's Kate Bartlett (Marchlands, Identity, Vera), Sienna Films' Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny (Diamonds, The Hot Zone (working title)) and Mid Atlantic Films' Howard Ellis and Adam Goodman (The Borgias, Pillars of The Earth) and David Collins of Samson Films, Ireland. The miniseries will air globally in April 2012, to coincide with the landmark centenary anniversary of the ship's sinking.