The Royal Finger . . .

 . . . is right on the money, and with the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations now very much in the news I thought it appropriate to publish again these three faces of Her Majesty at different ages - two on coins bearing the earliest and most recent official images of her reign, plus my 1982 photograph of her talking with assessors at the Trial of the Pyx in Goldsmiths Hall, London, where samples of the current coinage are examined at least once every year for legal certification as being of the correct dimensions and purity. This is carried out in the presence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his capacity as Master of the Royal Mint who at that time was Sir Geoffrey Howe, seen here resplendent in his  gold-emblazoned robe.

The photo was taken  in the age when newspapers were still  printed almost exclusively in black and white, but as printing technology advanced we began to carry extra cameras loaded with Kodachrome film, as I did here.

A personal memory of the occasion was finding myself on the Royal Mint's mailing list that year  when they sent me a copy of their official Christmas card using one of my pictures from this set!  Quite an expensive looking card, which I thought was very generous of them ... but of course they do make a lot of money in their business!

So, Thank you Ma'am, for the memory, with my loyal wish that Dei gratia we might live to celebrate your hundredth.

 

Extra photo today: The Royal Mint Christmas card, 1982  with the photograph of this historic ceremony in the magnificent Goldsmiths Hall.