Gorden Brown Banishes 300-year-old Britannia From 50p Coin

Hello

While I collect coins made in the United States,
I came across the story below on the Britannia
being removed from the 50p coin.



FROM:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...id=1770&ct= 5

Brown banishes 300-year-old tradition by
removing Britannia from our 50p coin

By SIMON McGEE and GLEN OWEN - More by this author »

Last updated at 23:54pm on 26th January 2008

Gordon Brown's campaign to promote British values was
exposed as a sham last night after it was revealed he
personally approved a decision to remove Britannia
from the 50p coin.

The patriotic symbol - based on a Roman goddess - will
no longer be on any British coin for the first time in
more than 300 years, as part of a redesign by the
Royal Mint.

An overhaul of all coinage in April, being billed as
the most significant change to the currency since
decimalisation, will see it replaced with a
representation of modern Britain.

(Image of the Britannia on the 50p coin, can be viewed
on the above link)

The disclosure makes a nonsense of Mr Brown's repeated
declarations of his patriotism in the run-up to taking
over from Tony Blair.

When The Mail on Sunday first contacted the Government
yesterday to confirm the reform, surprised officials
doubted it could have been approved at the top levels
of the Treasury.

But after extensive behind-the-scenes consultations,
they confirmed that it had indeed been sanctioned -
by Gordon Brown as Chancellor, shortly before he
entered Downing Street last June.

The Queen then rubber-stamped the idea later in the
year. But Buckingham Palace would not comment last
night on the Monarch's personal opinion of the change.

The move is a personal embarrassment to Mr Brown,
because at the time he made the decision, he was
emphasising his sense of "Britishness" as part of
efforts to appear a fitting occupant of Downing Street.

He praised the British values of responsibility,
liberty and fairness - and even threw his weight
behind the campaign to stop BBC Radio 4 from dropping
its UK Theme, which included a rousing performance of
Rule Britannia.

Soon after he took power, Mr Brown appointed Michael
Wills, one of his most trusted allies, as Minister for
Patriotism, with orders to promote "Britishness" across
the country.

Last night, the Treasury attempted to gloss over the
reform by insisting the Britannia symbol would return
for future Mint runs.

But critics said it was "depressing" that it would
not be the default design on the tails side of a
British circulation coin for the first time since 1672.

The revamp is the culmination of a process that started
in 2005, when the Royal Mint launched a competition to
find designs for the UK's coins.

It is keeping the winning entries under wraps, but the
artists - who each claimed £5,000 if they were
successful - were told to "consider themes to represent
Britain, such as flora or fauna, geographic features,
social, political or cultural achievements or British
institutions", or to interpret heraldry "in an imaginative
and creative way".

More than 4,000 designs, submitted by 526 artists, have
been whittled down to seven by the Royal Mint's Advisory
Committee on Coin Design.

It means that the traditional heraldic designs on a total
of seven coins, including the crowned lion and chained
portcullis, will all vanish.

Advisory Committee member John Porteous, who sat on the
committee in 1969 with poet John Betjeman and art historian
Lord Clark when Britannia was moved from the penny to the
50p coin, refused to comment on the new designs.

But he said: "My thought was that it was a great idea to
keep Britannia at that particular point in time.

"However, I don't think anyone cares for her much longer.

"Britannia was a Bank of England badge and she really
belongs to them."

But Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "Britannia
has been an enduring symbol of British pride and history.

"It is all too typical of a Government with an inadequate
sense of British pride and an ignorance of history to want
to do away with such a symbol."

Historian Andrew Roberts, author of Eminent Churchillians
and A History Of The English-Speaking People Since 1900,
called for an urgent rethink.

"We constantly see Gordon Brown wrapping himself up in the
Union Jack, yet here we find a blatant attempt to erase our
history, to allow important symbols to be abolished after
300 years," he said.

"Britannia is a classic symbol of modern Britain and people
care very much about what is on their coins.

"People fight for symbols, for flags, because they represent
in a small way the big things that matter to us.

"What does this rather sinister term 'modernisation' mean?
Does it mean sticking that awful Jade Goody on the 50p instead?"

Richard Bishop, chief numismatist at London coin-dealer
Spink and Son, said: "Poor old Britannia - even she has a
sell-by date.

"One day, people will probably wonder, 'Who's this
old woman holding a fork?' But if they've decided she
should go, what about other things, like the British
lion? Is that for the scrapheap?"

The current standard designs for 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p and 50p
pieces were rolled out in the run-up to decimalisation in
1971 and were joined by the 20p piece in 1982 and the £1
in 1983. They have been minted in batches every year since
then.

The £2 coin will be unaffected by the changes and
limited-edition non-circulation coins are still expected
to carry Britannia.

A Royal Mint spokeswoman last night refused to discuss the
abolition of Britannia.

She would only say: "We will be launching some new coins
in the spring.

"It's a really important project for us and it's very
important that people understand what's changing and
why it's happening."

A Treasury spokesman said: "As people will see when the
new Mint run is issued, the chosen designs represent the
best traditions of British coinage and are totally in line
with the Government's desire to celebrate our British
heritage, including our historic national and heraldic
emblems.

"The traditional Britannia design and other traditional
designs will return in future mint runs.

The figure of Britannia first appeared almost 2,000
years ago when the Romans created her as a personification
of the British Isles, which they called Britanniae.

She made her first appearance on a Roman coin during the
rule of Emperor Hadrian.

Her first appearance on a British coin came during the
reign of Charles II, on the copper farthing in 1672 and
the copper halfpenny in 1673.

She was conjured up as a symbol of Britain's political
and naval might during the time of the Third
Anglo-Dutch War, and by the Victorian era she had grown
to become a more forceful, trident-holding representation
of the British Empire.

Between 1797 and 1970, she was on the penny coin and
now features on an estimated 769million 50p pieces in
circulation.

...

Arizona Coin Collector wrote:
Hello

While I collect coins made in the United States,
I came across the story below on the Britannia
being removed from the 50p coin.



FROM:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...id=1770&ct= 5

Just look at the stream of nonsensical comments from the "Let's Not
Change Anything Ever!" brigade. I'm English and vote Conservative.
Just imagine if Mrs Thatcher had said let's change nothing! Britannia
is an ancient Roman symbol. I'm not Roman - I'm British! None of these
people gave a thought to this hoary old symbol until some rag stirred
them up to do it.

The 20p design was introduced in 1982 and I'm fond of it, but all the
others are 40 years old now. Name me just one of the 1p to 50p coins
that has ever been regarded as a design classic. None. Coin design in
Europe is being modernised as a result of the Euro, but I believe that
the talent in the UK can surpass whatever designs are produced on the
Euro. Some of the national Euro coinages use the same image on each
coin, for goodness' sake!

Imagine if we changed nothing and were still using pounds, shillings
and pence! And don't forget the furore that the decimal coins
themselves produced when they were first issued. Years after their
issue, pensioners were blaming them for causing inflation. Idiots.
Let's look forward to and celebrate a bit of innovation. Wait until we
see the results and have lived with them for two or three years. Then
will be the time to comment.

Adam.

Arizona Coin Collector wrote:
Hello

While I collect coins made in the United States,
I came across the story below on the Britannia
being removed from the 50p coin.



FROM:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...id=1770&ct= 5


It is interesting to see that people from other countries get their undies
in a bunch about an issue even less important than whether 'In God We Trust'
is on coins or not.

"PC" wrote in message
It is interesting to see that people from other countries get their undies
in a bunch about an issue even less important than whether 'In God We
Trust' is on coins or not.


I think Britannia on the 50p is more important than "IGWT", been on coins
far far longer, 1672 for English coins, and for Roman Britain the 2nd
century.

Ukraina Dvi wrote:
"PC" wrote in message
It is interesting to see that people from other countries get their
undies in a bunch about an issue even less important than whether
'In God We Trust' is on coins or not.


I think Britannia on the 50p is more important than "IGWT",

OK

been on
coins far far longer, 1672 for English coins, and for Roman Britain
the 2nd century.

God has been around quite a bit longer; but that is not to imply that I
believe that simply being around for a longer length of time makes something
more important by default. I'm not sure why you do, either.

I will say this: Britannia is more appropriate to have on a coin than IGWT.
That might make it more important because it really does matter as a symbol
of national pride whereas having IGWT could actually be interpreted as
idolatry and seen as something that does more harm than good.

Really I should have said "less important to me as an American". I did not
intend for the tone of my post to imply that this issue is of less
importance simply because it is not an American issue.

--
"Line up alphabetically by height" - Bill Peterson, Florida State Head
Football Coach

"Ukraina Dvi" wrote in message
...

"PC" wrote in message
It is interesting to see that people from other countries get their
undies in a bunch about an issue even less important than whether 'In God
We Trust' is on coins or not.


I think Britannia on the 50p is more important than "IGWT", been on coins
far far longer, 1672 for English coins, and for Roman Britain the 2nd
century.

I believe the various images of Britannia make for some of the most
beautiful coins I have ever seen. But, I think we should put the female
Liberty back on US coins. Change does not imply improvement.

W.

On Jan 28, 6:23*pm, "1787" wrote:
"Ukraina Dvi" wrote in message

...



"PC" wrote in message
It is interesting to see that people from other countries get their
undies in a bunch about an issue even less important than whether 'In God
We Trust' is on coins or not.

I think Britannia on the 50p is more important than "IGWT", been on coins
far far longer, 1672 for English coins, and for Roman Britain the 2nd
century.

I believe the various images of Britannia make for some of the most
beautiful coins I have ever seen. *But, I think we should put the female
Liberty back on US coins. *Change does not imply improvement.

W.
Since when are we a country that wories about insulting other over In
god we trust, except the last 7 years?

"sgt23" wrote in message
...
On Jan 28, 6:23 pm, "1787" wrote:
"Ukraina Dvi" wrote in message

...



"PC" wrote in message
It is interesting to see that people from other countries get their
undies in a bunch about an issue even less important than whether 'In
God
We Trust' is on coins or not.

I think Britannia on the 50p is more important than "IGWT", been on
coins
far far longer, 1672 for English coins, and for Roman Britain the 2nd
century.

I believe the various images of Britannia make for some of the most
beautiful coins I have ever seen. But, I think we should put the female
Liberty back on US coins. Change does not imply improvement.

W.
Since when are we a country that wories about insulting other over In
god we trust, except the last 7 years?
_______

Please..... either go back to school for the summer or at least use your
spell checker. If you don't care what your posts look like, why should we
care what they say?

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:22:12 -0500, "Ukraina Dvi"
wrote:

"PC" wrote in message
It is interesting to see that people from other countries get their undies
in a bunch about an issue even less important than whether 'In God We
Trust' is on coins or not.


I think Britannia on the 50p is more important than "IGWT", been on coins
far far longer, 1672 for English coins, and for Roman Britain the 2nd
century.

I think "Liberty" and "E Pluribus Unum" are more important than "In
God We Trust." on US coins. But then, I didn't notice the word
"Liberty" was missing from the Presidential coins until I read about
it. Maybe when they move "In God We Trust" to the obverse of the
Presidential coins they can add the word "Liberty" to the edge.

On Jan 28, 8:59*pm, Jon Purkey wrote:
On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:22:12 -0500, "Ukraina Dvi"

wrote:
"PC" wrote in message
It is interesting to see that people from other countries get their undies
in a bunch about an issue even less important than whether 'In God We
Trust' is on coins or not.

I think Britannia on the 50p is more important than "IGWT", been on coins
far far longer, 1672 for English coins, and for Roman Britain the 2nd
century.

I think "Liberty" and "E Pluribus Unum" are more important than "In
God We Trust." on US coins. But then, I didn't notice the word
"Liberty" was missing from the Presidential coins until I read about
it. Maybe when they move "In God We Trust" to the obverse of the
Presidential coins they can add the word "Liberty" to the edge.

The Statue of Liberty was used to replace the word "Liberty".
The reverse was the nicest things about the PrezBux and now they're
going to muck it up.