Newly Minted Rainbow Coin Honoring LGBTQ Pride Is A Thing Of Beauty

A colorful new coin has been minted to mark the 50th anniversary of the LGBTQ pride movement in the United Kingdom.

London artist Dominique Holmes designed the 50-pence piece, which was a collaboration between the U.K.’s Royal Mint and the Pride in London group.

The colors of the pride flag feature alongside the values of Pride in London: protest, visibility, unity and equality.

The transgender community is represented via white, pink and blue stripes. Queer people of color are honored with black and brown ones.

The coins will not be introduced into general circulation, but will be available to buy online.

With the coin, Holmes said they wanted to “evoke images of the original pride marches — the hand-made placards and protest signs calling out the demands of the brave LGBTQ+ people who were taking to the streets to fight for their rights.”

“I wanted it to really highlight the ethos and drive behind pride as a movement,” they told HuffPost via email. “These days it is so often dismissed as just a ‘parade’ and a ‘celebration’ when in fact it has always been much more than that.”

Holmes initially had “mixed feelings” about the project, saying they were “jaded by the amount of corporate pinkwashing that has derailed the important social and political drive behind pride.”

“But I could see that they were trying to work with the community to provide authentic allyship” and the coin is now “definitely sparking conversation,” they added. “The negativity around the coin’s release from anti-trans campaigners really highlights that we still have a long way to go, and shows how marginalized the Queer community still is.”

Asad Shaykh, Pride in London’s director of marketing and communications, said the creation of the coin was humbling.

“This queer brown immigrant has come a long way, powered by hope, love and this city,” Shaykh added in a statement the Royal Mint shared online. “Nowhere in the world had this been possible, except the UK. Pride in London feels very proud today.”