You Can Mint a Free Ethereum NFT for King Charles’ Coronation

Hear ye, hear ye! Just in time for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on May 6, the Evening Standard newspaper has teamed with digital artist Trevor Jones to launch a free collection of commemorative Ethereum NFT celebrating the event on Nifty Gateway.

Created in collaboration with Apollo NFT, “The Oath” can be claimed directly on Nifty Gateway or by using a QR code printed in the newspaper. The QR codes are also posted on billboards along Oxford Street, for those travelling to the capital to take part in the celebrations in person. But before you let the FOMO set in, the NFTs won’t be minted and delivered to collectors' wallets until May 7.

“With the eyes of the world on London this weekend, we are extremely proud to collaborate with Trevor Jones and celebrate this iconic moment for our city,” Evening Standard CEO Charles Yardley said. “Trevor’s NFT depicts imagery representing centuries of tradition and history, in a format that represents how the modern world is democratising art for both artists and collectors.”

The Oath NFT began as a physical painting by Jones in his Edinburgh studio. The artwork depicts Saint Edward’s Crown, worn by Queen Elizabeth II in her 1953 coronation.

“With Layer-2 in play now and the carbon footprint down 99.99%, there’s no longer an environmental issue with using the Ethereum blockchain,” Jones told Decrypt. “More importantly, however, I saw this as a fantastic opportunity to onboard new collectors into the NFT art scene, which is currently hitting quite the lows from the last couple of years.”

Layer-2 refers to a protocol built on a blockchain like Immuntable X or the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

“Dropping on Nifty Gateway meant that anyone could register an account simply with an email address and mint their first NFT artwork,” Jones said, adding that he wanted the process to be as simple as possible for collectors minting their first NFT.

The Evening Standard joins other media outlets making the leap into Web3, including TIME, GQ, and Playboy.

The Oath isn't the first NFT mint to commemorate the British royal family. In September, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, an NFT collection, QueenE by Web3 builders Fabio Sevá, Vinícius Rodrigues, Everton Matumoto, and the pseudonymous mladen.eth, was launched to celebrate the life of England’s longest (1952-2022) reigning monarch.

Non-fungible tokens, NFTs, are cryptographically unique tokens linked to digital and physical content, providing proof of ownership, authenticity, or membership in a group. Previous collections by Jones include Bitcoin Angels, Man vs. Machine with rap icon Ice Cube, and Picasso’s Bull.