You Gave Me The Answer - The Royal Mint Coin Collection

'And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen', so sings Paul on 'Penny Lane'. The portrait alludes to Queen Elizabeth II, whose face featured on the obverse of a British coin at the time (the obverse is 'heads' when you’re playing 'Heads or Tails').

Cut to 2024, and it gives us great pleasure to say that Paul now features on the 'tails' of a new Royal Mint coin, celebrating his life and music - this time, with King Charles III as the 'heads'. The £5 coin is available in a variety of finishes, all featuring a design inspired by Paul's iconic Magic Piano.

To mark this historic moment, we sat down with Paul to learn more about his coin, and how the project came about.

PaulMcCartney.com: On December 6th, The Royal Mint in the UK released a new coin to celebrate your music. How does it feel to be on your very own coin?  

Paul: It feels like a huge honour. It's not anything I would have expected to happen when I was a kid. I'm interested to see who wants one! They're pretty cool. There's a colour version, which I like. There’s also a silver version, and a very rare gold version. So yeah, I'm excited. It's an honour. 

PM.com: Did you collect coins as a kid? 

Paul: I used to collect coins in order to go to the cinema, so this is something very different. A memory also comes to my mind: we used to collect the copper coins and you could polish them with a little Brasso – which is this liquid polish you can get in the UK. We’d polish them up, these old coins, and they came up marvellous and like brand new.  

PM.com: The coin’s design has a number of iconic images from your career, such as the Höfner bass, the Wings logo, the Magic Piano design. We also noticed there is a D minor chord etched onto the keyboard of the coin. Is there a specific reason you chose that chord?  

Paul: The team in my office suggested adding in a chord. It’s difficult to pick just one that would work on a coin. But, I think, graphically, it looks nice. It could have been C major, D minor, A minor. These are all chords you use in songs, and you’re really just moving the same shape up and down the keyboard. But a D Minor is as good as any chord for me! There is a small connection to the film Spinal Tap here too (and I’m in their latest film – as long as I don’t end up on the cutting room floor!). Their guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, calls D minor the saddest of all chords. You know, and he's being very serious when he says it. So, in the musical fraternity, D minor is the saddest of all chords. According to our Nigel. 

PM.com: But not on this coin, it’s a fun chord! 

Paul: No, no, no, no, no! Yeah! It's just, graphically, I think it looks good. 

PM.com: On the subject of coins, we hear that you sometimes flatten them for plectrums using the Amtrak trains? Which coin makes the best plectrum, and when did you first start doing this? 

Paul: I did it when the kids were little, and you have some change in your pocket. You know, you have to be super careful though. Everyone sort of says, ‘Whoa, watch out!’ But this track I'm talking about, you can see a mile to the left and a mile to the right and they don’t have express trains roaring through. So, I’m always super safe when I do it. And I’ll just put a cent down, which works well. A quarter too. These are American coins, by the way. So, a cent and a quarter, are particularly good to flatten. And then I give them to the kids or give them to friends, just as a fun little thing.  

PM.com: We remember collecting coins as kids when you go to a tourist destination. You have these machines with big wheels that you turn, and you can squash coins.  

Paul: Yeah! It’s fun and a bit of a crazy thing to do. But, it's like only a penny or a dime.  You're not, you know, ruining an impressive Royal Mint coin with my name on it!  

We wouldn't dream of it! You can find out more about The Royal Mint’s coin celebrating Paul’s music and career here.