New portrait of Queen Elizabeth to appear on coins next year

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth II which appears on UK coins will change next year for the first time in 16 years.
It will be the fifth version of the Queen's profile to appear on currency during her 62-year reign.
The new portrait of the 88-year-old British monarch will be chosen in a closed competition run by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, the BBC reported.
Specialist designers will be invited to submit their entries anonymously before the committee chooses a winner.
The current depiction of the Queen, designed by Ian Rank-Broadley, has been in circulation since 1998.
The Rank-Broadley portrait came about after the Royal Mint held a competition to design the obverse of the 1997 Golden Wedding crown - a coin issued to celebrate the Queen and Prince Philip's 50th wedding anniversary.

Next year will also see the first 2015 dated coins to be released, such as the new 2015 Sovereign, which will be the last ever coins to feature the current effigy.

Dating back to the 15th Century, The Sovereign was for many years the primary circulating gold coin not just in the UK but in many countries around the world.
It was named The Sovereign because of the handsome portrait of the Monarch engraved on its obverse.
According to the Royal Mint, the standard of the entries for that competition was so high that it was decided it should be a way of arriving at a new standard portrait for circulating coins as well.

Adam Lawrence, chief executive of The Royal Mint, said: "This change of effigy will make 2015 a vintage year for UK coins.