A COUNTY business is making new commemorative medals for the Queen's jubilee.

Worcestershire Medal Service has been given the task of making 400,000 medals for the platinum jubilee, celebrating 70 years of her reign.

The medals will be handed out to emergency workers and members of the armed forces in honour of their bravery and sacrifice.

Phil McDermott, chief executive officer of the Worcestershire Medal Service, said the order was a welcome boost following the Covid crisis.

He said: “It means a lot of job security for people, we’re actually creating jobs as well, which is a terrific story having come through the pandemic.”

Mr McDermott explained how he designed the distinctive ribbon for the medal commemorating the Queen’s 70-year reign: “I submitted a few ribbon designs and I was fortunate that they picked one.

“It combines some of the previous medals so the design is a nod to the Coronation medal – same layers, slightly different structure – and then I put silver stripes on the edge to mark the Silver Jubilee, the centre stripe is the blue from the Golden Jubilee ribbon, and the red is from the Diamond Jubilee.”

Medals will be awarded to living recipients of the Victoria and George Crosses and serving frontline members of the police, fire, emergency services, prison services and Armed Forces who have completed five years service on February 6 2022, the start of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries hailed the medal as a "fitting tribute" to the sacrifices of the armed forces.

Timothy Noad from the College of Arms designed the medal, made of nickel silver, which features the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of the Queen with the Latin inscription “Elizabeth II Dei Gratia Regina Fid Def” – Elizabeth II, By the Grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith.

On the reverse is the heraldic image of the royal crest and the years of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – 1952-2022.

Medals have been awarded to mark royal jubilees since the Victorian period when the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign was commemorated in 1887 with a medal.

In recent decades, medals have been issued to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, Golden Jubilee in 2002 and Silver Jubilee in 1977.