Mary Gillick

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox person Mary Gaskell Gillick Template:Post-nominals (Template:Nee Tutin; 1881 – 27 January 1965)<ref>Mrs Mary Gaskell Gillick OBE in: Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951, accessed 12 December 2013</ref> was a sculptor and medallist, best known for her effigy of Elizabeth II used on coinage in the United Kingdom and elsewhere from 1953 to 1970.

File:Effigy of Elizabeth II (by Mary Gillick).jpg

Effigy of Elizabeth II by Mary Gillick

Personal life

Born Mary Gaskell Tutin in Nottingham, she was the eldest of three children born to Thomas Tutin and Elizabeth Gaskell (Template:Nee Ardern),<ref name=madrb/> who wed on 25 March 1880 in Knutsford, Cheshire.

She was educated at the Nottingham School of Art (1898–1902) and at the Royal College of Art (1902–1904), where she studied under the sculptor Édouard Lantéri.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

After making her first exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1911, she designed several medals to be used as awards, and several other, larger relief sculptures in stone and bronzeTemplate:Citation needed including the stone commemorative sculpture, Crosby Hall, Chelsea 1926<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1905, she married sculptor Ernest Gillick.

Honours

She was appointed OBE in the 1953 Coronation Honours.<ref name=madrb>Template:Citation</ref>

Effigy of Elizabeth II

In 1952, Gillick's effigy design was selected from a field of seventeen to be used on general-circulation coinage for the new Queen Elizabeth, first issued in 1953. Gillick worked on the portrait between March and October 1952, with one sitting and close supervision by the Duke of Edinburgh.<ref name=":0" /> Gillick's design was notable for portraying the Queen uncrowned, and was the last to be used on the pre-decimal coinage.

Gillick's die master had insufficient relief, and the striking was too weak. Facial features and the dress folds in the shoulder disappeared. The problem was solved by re-cutting the dies. This remastering was performed by Cecil Thomas, an experienced medallist who had already crafted overseas currencies featuring Elizabeth II, but who had initially been turned down for the British coinage in preference to Gillick.<ref>Thomas, Cecil Walter (1885–1976), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Sept 2004</ref>

A cameo of Gillick's effigy of the Queen has been used on British commemorative stamps from 1966 to 9 March 2023;<ref name="scotsman-2023">Template:Cite news</ref> the original effigy was also used for Maundy money until the Queen's death in 2022.