Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit gets his own 50p coin

The Royal Mint has chosen Beatrix Potter’s thieving Peter Rabbit as the first character from children’s literature ever to appear on a UK coin. Peter, pictured in the blue jacket that he is forced to abandon in the garden of Mr McGregor when he is caught stealing vegetables, is captured on a special, coloured edition of a 50p coin available from today.

The Royal Mint, which described Peter as “the most recognisable of Potter’s creations, and one of the most cherished from children’s literature”, will release uncoloured versions of the coin in change later this year.

Three more of Potter’s characters will also be committed to currency later this year, as part of celebrations marking 150 years since the children’s author’s birth. The images have been created by coin designer Emma Noble, who said it was “amazing to be given the opportunity to work with such famous and treasured literary characters”.

“I wanted to put Beatrix Potter’s illustrations to the forefront of my design as they are lovely images and the characters are very well known,” said Noble. “ I felt they were strong enough to stand alone and I designed them in this way as I thought they would work best for both the coloured commemorative and un-coloured circulating coins. I really hope people are pleased with them as a set.”

Potter’s ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’, featuring Peter and his better-behaved siblings Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail, was the first of her stories to be published, released in 1902 by Frederick Warne & Co. Potter would go on to follow it with a series of much-loved stories which remain popular today, fromThe Tale of Squirrel Nutkin to The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck.