To celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday on 21 April, the Royal Mint has produced a special commemorative £5 coin, and some people will be getting it for free.

The coin, designed by artist Christopher Hobbs, was inspired by the heraldic rose, and the Queen’s passion for flowers. It will cost £13, but there’s one group of people who will be able to get their hands on a coin for free. They are being given out to anyone who shares their 90th birthday with the Queen.

The coin issue follows a royal tradition. There were coins made for the Queen’s 70th and 80th birthday, and a £5 coin released to mark the fact that the Queen became the longest reigning monarch last year. There are also numerous coins minted to celebrate a whole host of Royal events from jubilees to weddings and to commemorate events like the centenary of WWI.

They tend to come as normal £5 coins – sold at a bit of a premium – plus a small number of the coins are minted in rare metals like gold, silver and platinum. The mint is making the 90th birthday coins in rare metals too, and the platinum edition will cost £5,000.

Should you collect?

It’s clearly a money-spinner for the Royal Mint, and the new coins are a nice freebie for anyone turning 90 at the right time. They are nicely designed, and fun to collect – and the Royal Mint reckons they will fly out of the door. However, they may not be particularly sound investments.

The rare metal coins have tended to rise and fall in value along with the value of the metal in them. The biggest problem with them is that in order to buy these coins you have to spend far more than the cost of the metal in the first place – so the price of the metal would have to rise dramatically in order for you to get your money back – let alone make anything. It means there are better ways to make money from any rise in the price of rare metals.

As for the normal £5 coins, they are too numerous to make money. In fact, if you were to try to sell them on to a collector, you would be lucky to be offered £3 as its investment value. You’d be better off taking them to a bank or your local Post Office, and get the £5 back.

But what do you think? Do royal coins appeal regardless of their resale value, would you rather have a tea towel, or will you be giving the whole thing a miss? Let us know in the comments.