Description

In 2018 The Royal Mint has continued its Christmas collection with the issue of the very first UK the Nutcracker £5 coin.

The Nutcracker (Russian: Щелкунчик, Балет-феерия) is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", by way of Alexandre Dumas' adapted story "The Story of a Nutcracker". It was given its premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on Sunday, 18 December 1892, on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta.

Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions, in particular the pieces featured in the suite. The complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season.

The coin was available as a 'Strike You Own' edition at The Royal Mint Experience in Llantrisant, Wales between 19.11 and 31.12 2018.