Sailing

Sailing: Bruce Rushin

How did you decide to enter this competition?

I have designed coins before; in 1997 I was successful in the competition to design the new two pound coin. I have been submitting designs since then but this is the first successful design since 1997.

Why did you choose Sailing for your design?

I chose sailing because I live in Norfolk Broads, I don’t sail myself but everywhere I travel in the Norfolk Broads you see great yachts going past, when we first moved to Norfolk from our kitchen window we saw fields and sails. I’ve always loved to watch sailing if not as a sailor.

What was the inspiration behind your idea?

I was certainly inspired by the successes of Ben Ainsley and was surprised when I started to research just how small the dinghy’s are that he sails and that is the kind of yacht I tried to show in the design, I also found out that the sailing regatta was going to take place off the coast of Weymouth and so I wanted to get that very interesting coastal shape of Chesil Beach and Portland Bill into the design and for the background rather than using clouds or sky I decided to use latitude and longitude lines of a nautical chart.

How does it feel to know your coin is going to be in the pockets of millions of people for years to come?

As an artist if you do a piece of work, say a painting and somebody buys it that’s fantastic but only one person buys it and maybe a dozen people will see it in a year, with this it’s exponential, it’s enormous, particularly when your family say they may well have seen one of these or collected one is a great feeling.