Jody Clark (born 1 March 1981) is a British engraver formerly employed by the Royal Mint. He designed the fifth and final portrait of Queen Elizabeth II to feature on

coins of the pound sterling The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories is denominated in pennies and pounds sterling ( symbol "£", commercial GBP), and ranges in value from one penny sterling t ...

, and that portrait was the fifth and final to feature on

coins of the Australian dollar Coins of the Australian dollar were introduced on 14 February 1966, although they did not at that time include the one-dollar or two-dollar coins. The dollar was equivalent in value to 10 shillings (half a pound) in the former currency. Regul ...

Career

Clark started his engraving career at the Arden Group with fellow experts Julian Homer and Christopher Nield. Since he joined the Royal Mint in September 2012, Clark has worked on a number of projects including commemorative pieces which were given to attendees of the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales and medals struck to commemorate the

2014 Ryder Cup The 40th Ryder Cup matches were held 26–28 September 2014 in Scotland on the PGA Centenary Course at the Gleneagles Hotel near Auchterarder in Perth & Kinross. This was the second Ryder Cup held in Scotland; it was previously at Muirfield i ...

which took place at Gleneagles Hotel,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. He has also worked on commissions for Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Lesotho and Tanzania. In 2014 a design by Clark was featured on the

Britannia coin Britannia coins are British bullion coins issued by the Royal Mint in gold since 1987, in silver since 1997, and in platinum since 2018. The coin patterns feature various depictions of Britannia, a feminine personification of the United Kingdom ...

. Prior to joining the Mint, Clark worked in commercial packaging design. In 2015 Clark's anonymous submission to a design competition was chosen to become the fifth definitive coin portrait of

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

to feature on British coins. Clark was the first employee of the Royal Mint in over one hundred years to have designed such a portrait of the monarch. At the age of 33 when his design was chosen, Clark was younger than any of the other four designers to have created portraits of Elizabeth II for British coinage at the time their design was chosen. Uniquely, Clark's portrait of the Queen was created using computer-aided design software to turn his initial sketches into the required low-relief model, with no manual sculpting being used. Production of coins bearing Clark's design began on 2 March 2015, and they appeared in circulation later in 2015.

Personal life

Clark is originally from the Lake District in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

. In early 2015 he went on paternity leave following the birth of his first child.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Jody 1981 births Living people English designers British medallists British currency designers British engravers Coin designers People from Cumbria