Royal Mint Unveils Doctor Who Medals

Doctor Who fans are in for a treat this week, thanks to the launch of a limited-edition range of Doctor Who medals from the Royal Mint.

Licensed to the Royal Mint by BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm, the new medals feature iconic characters from Doctor Who, one of Britain’s best-loved shows.

For the first time, fans of the time-travelling Doctor will be able to get their hands on medals featuring David Tennant, who is set to  regenerate after the forthcoming and long-awaited Christmas Specials.

The medals also feature the Doctor’s famous robot dog K-9 and the infamous monster – the Daleks.  The medals come in packaging featuring the Doctor Who logo and include trivia to test even the most dedicated fans.

This is also the first time that television characters have featured on a Royal Mint medal.  

Dave Knight, Director of Commemorative Coin, said: "Just as The Doctor is timeless, so too is the enduring appeal of the television series which continues to entertain audiences across the world. We hope fans everywhere will find these medals a fitting tribute not just to David Tennant, but to the whole Doctor Who story."

Head of UK Licensing at BBC Worldwide Richard Hollis said: "David Tennant’s performance as the Doctor has been applauded and celebrated across the country and these medals are a fantastic way for fans to collect a lasting memento."

500 gold medals featuring the Tenth Doctor are to be issued, priced at £150.00. A silver version is available for £35.00, with a limited-edition of 5,000. In addition, 500 gold medals featuring a Dalek will be issued, priced at £150.00. Both medals, together with a K-9 medal, are also available in Brilliant Uncirculated quality, priced at £9.99.

For further information or to purchase a medal, please visit www.royalmint.com or call the Royal Mint Customer Services Team on 0845 60 88 222 (UK).

For North America and Canada please call International FREEPHONE 1-866-519-7298 (USA) and International FREEPHONE 1-866-924-0861 (Canada) or write to: The Royal Mint, FREEPOST, NAT23496, PO Box 500, Llantrisant, Pontyclun, CF72 8YT.

Doctor Who Medal specifications are as follows:

About The Royal Mint

The Royal Mint is a department of government and its primary responsibility remains the provision of the United Kingdom coinage. Its reputation, however, extends beyond this and internationally it has a reputation for making some fascinating coins for over 100 countries.

The Royal Mint has a history dating back over 1000 years. By the late thirteenth century the organisation was based in the Tower of London, and remained there for over 500 years. By 1812, the Royal Mint had moved out of the Tower to premises on London’s Tower Hill. In 1967 the building of a new Royal Mint began on its current site in Llantrisant, South Wales. In April 1975 the Mint was established as a Government Trading Fund, operationally very similar to a government-owned company.

There were estimated to be 28.2 billion United Kingdom coins in circulation at 31 March 2009, with a total face value of £3.6 billion — all manufactured by the Royal Mint. 1.3 billion United Kingdom coins were issued during 2008-09.

About BBC Worldwide

BBC Worldwide Limited is the main commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The company exists to maximise the value of the BBC’s assets for the benefit of the licence fee payer and invest in public service programming in return for rights. The company has seven core businesses: Channels, Content & Production, Digital Media, Sales & Distribution, Magazines, Home Entertainment and Global Brands. In 2008/09, BBC Worldwide generated profits of £102.6 million (before exceptionals) on sales of over £1 billion.

BBC Worldwide was awarded with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in April 2009. This prestigious award for International Trade recognised the company’s substantial growth in overseas earnings and commercial success at outstanding levels, based on 3 years’ trading results, which benefit the UK creative industries and ultimately the licence fee payer.

About Doctor Who

Doctor Who sits within BBC Worldwide’s Global Brands division and has a commercial portfolio across DVD, merchandising, digital download and publishing (magazines, books and audiobooks). The show is available internationally from 93 broadcasters in 47 territories, from Spain to Serbia, Israel to Iceland.

Since the new series began in 2005, over 3 million DVDs, around 1.5 million adult books from Ebury and 1.3 million children’s books from Penguin and over 600,000 audiobooks have been sold, while 1.5m people have toured the Doctor Who Touring Exhibition. The brand is consistently one of the UK’s top ten licenses, and the Doctor Who Annual 2009 was the number 2 best-selling annual in the Children’s Bookscan charts.

Children’s magazine Doctor Who Adventures sells 57,000 copies every week, making it the bestselling children’s title in terms of retail sales value, while downloads of the series regularly reach number one on iTunes. With the arrival of the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith, BBC Worldwide is currently looking at a range of commercial products to extend audiences enjoyment beyond the television programme.