The Sex Pistols have released their ‘Pistol Mint Commemorative Coin’ today (May 30) ahead of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee on Friday (June 3).
The nickel-plated coin features artist Jamie Reid’s Union Jack flag design on the front, with a high quality decal of his depiction of the Queen sporting a lip piercing on the back.
It comes days after the band reissued their controversial 1977 single ‘God Save The Queen’, which includes the lyrics “God save the queen / She ain’t no human being / And there is no future / In England’s dreaming.” The single was seen as an anti-monarchy protest song, released around the time of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in the summer of ’77.
Despite being banned by the BBC at the time, the song reached Number One on the NME chart and Number Two on the UK’s singles chart (the track was listed as a blank on the latter to avoid causing offence).
The commemorative coin (available here until the end of June), which marks the Queen’s 70th year on the throne, comes in a cushioned sapphire velvet presentation box with the front face design embossed in silver. Additionally, a bonus digital counterpart is available in the form of an NFT that can be redeemed via The Pistol Mint.
In addition, the NFT collection features several designs assigned randomly upon minting.
The irony of the coin’s minting is not lost, however, some members of the Sex Pistols have since clarified that the 1977 song from which it’s inspired isn’t quite what listeners took it to be.
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten – frontman of the Pistols) said in a recent interview with Piers Morgan that he is “actually really, really proud of the Queen for surviving and doing so well”.
He told TalkTV earlier this month that ‘God Save The Queen’ was “anti-royalist, but it’s not anti-human”.
“I’ve got to tell the world this. Everyone presumes that I’m against the royal family as human beings, I’m not,” Lydon said. “I’m actually really, really proud of the Queen for surviving and doing so well.
“I applaud her for that, and that’s a fantastic achievement. I’m not a curmudgeon about that.”
In other recent news, Danny Boyle has said that he wants Lydon to “attack” his new Sex Pistols biopic series Pistol, saying that he wouldn’t expect the singer to “change the habit of a lifetime”.
The director made allusions in a new interview to the former Sex Pistols frontman’s outspoken nature. Lydon has repeatedly criticised the forthcoming biopic on several occasions since its inception.
Among those is the time that Lydon called the series a “middle class fantasy” that is “rewriting history” and “would be funny if it wasn’t tragic”.
Pistol premieres on Hulu (and Disney+ where Hulu isn’t available) on May 31.
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