Less than a month after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the first coins featuring the official portrait of King Charles III have been released.

Each of the new commemorative coins bears the first coinage portrait of the King, designed by British sculptor Martin Jennings and personally approved by King Charles III.

"I was delighted to hear that the King likes the image," Mr Jennings told the Royal Mint.

"He was very interested in it and responded very positively to it."

To prepare for the process of designing His Majesty's official coinage portrait, Mr Jennings began his research by studying as many photographs of The King as he could.

"You collect as many photographic images of your subject as you can," he said.

"To present just one side of somebody's head, you have to understand how the head works in the round, so you examine all of these old photographs then settle on just one or two that give you the optimal impression of the side of the head that you are modelling.

"The piece is modelled in plaster larger than the size of the coin, so about the size of a dinner plate.

"I work by hand using tiny, tiny millimetres of material to model it. And eventually, once it is complete and cast in plaster, my original design can be digitally reduced so that the impression is the right size for a coin."

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