The official £5 coins for the London 2012 Games, created by student design competition winners, were unveiled.

Saiman Miah, 24, said his love of architecture spurred on his design for the Olympic coin which includes a detailed sweep of London’s skyline and pictograms of athletes running around the edge.

The Paralympic coin, designed by Pippa Sanderson, celebrates accuracy, manoeuvrability and speed. The coin is split into four and features a wheel for manoeuvrability, a target for accuracy, a stopwatch for speed and the face of Big Ben to represent London and time.

The pair take home £5,000 prize money as the winners of the Royal Mint competition for art and design students to come up with a commemorative coin.

Both coins, which are produced by the Royal Mint, are also stamped with the London 2012 logo in the Union Flag colours.

Mr Miah, a Masters student at Birmingham School of Architecture, said: “I wanted a classical design that represented old traditional British values.

”London 2012 is very contemporary so I have merged the old and new together with the classic London landmarks such as Big Ben and St Paul’s with the pictograms of the Olympic sports on the outer edge. I am very proud to be involved in both Olympic and British legacy.

”As a designer to have a piece of your artwork possibly in the hands of thousands of people around the world is amazing and a great honour. When tourists come to London for the Games, I wanted them to also be able to take a part of the hosting city away.”

Ms Sanderson, a recent graphic and media design graduate at Hereford College of Arts, from Malvern, Worcestershire, said: “The Paralympic coin will be one that collectors and the public will treasure for years to come. My design idea came from the concept of rings and what they mean, from the track at the Olympic stadium to the Olympic rings.”

The coins, the latest in a summer Olympic tradition dating back to the 1952 Helsinki Games, will go on sale later this month.

The first Olympic coins can be traced back to 480BC and were introduced as souvenirs by the ancient Greeks.