Freddie Mercury of Queen photographed in 1982.
You own the albums, you’ve seen the film. Now buy the Queen coin.
Brian May, Roger Taylor and Co. have made history once again by becoming the first band to be feted with an official U.K. coin, created by The Royal Mint.
The commemorative coin is launched today (Jan. 20), with Queens on both sides: her majesty Queen Elizabeth II on one face, and the "Bohemian Rhapsody" greats on the other.
The coins’ design features the instruments played by each founding member: Brian May’s Red Special guitar, John Deacon’s Fender Precision bass, Roger Taylor’s Ludwig bass drum decorated with the Queen crest, and Freddie Mercury’s Bechstein grand piano with the opening notes of "Bohemian Rhapsody" pressed down.
“This is a big ‘Who could have imagined it?’ moment for us,” comments guitarist Brian May in a statement. “When we began as Queen, even the first rung of the ladder to recognition seemed remote and unreachable. To have our band recognized and our music celebrated in this way is very touching - a real honor.”
The coins were designed by The Royal Mint’s Chris Facey through a collaboration orchestrated by Bravado, Universal Music Group’s merchandise and brand management company.
“Marvelous, all this fuss over our band,” quips founding drummer Roger Taylor. “I feel entirely spent.”
Prices range from £13 ($16.87) for the limited edition “brilliant uncirculated” coin, which includes a poster and comes in three exclusive packs. For those with royal tastes, there’s a silver and a gold proof edition, the latter priced at a whopping £2,100 ($2,725).
The coins can be purchased here from www.royalmint.com. According to a joint statement the Queen editions are the first in a new series celebrating “innovation and success of British music.”
It’s fitting that Queen gets The Royal Mint treatment. The veteran rockers reign over the all-time best sellers list in the U.K. with their 1981 Greatest Hits, which is the only album to sell more than six million copies in that territory (6.1 millions sales as at April 201), the Official Charts Company reports. Queen’s Greatest Hits II also makes the top tier of the best-sellers list at No. 10 with almost four million albums sold.
The royal links go deep. For an event cerebrating the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II back in 2002, Brian May performed "God Save the Queen" on the roof of Buckingham Palace.