The Royal Mint has today released a collectable 50p celebrating the National Health Services 75 th anniversary.Its slogan read: “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations.” The writer Philip Pullman called for it to be boycotted “by all literate people”.The Royal Mint set to donate proceeds of latest collectable 50p to NHS Charities Together The Royal Mint also faced criticism for failing to use an Oxford comma on its Brexit 50p piece. It will hope that is the case given the ridicule directed its way after HG Wells fans highlighted errors in coins commemorating the author, including an extra leg on his “monstrous tripod” from The War of the Worlds. Each of the coins, the Royal Mint says, features “a scientifically accurate reconstruction of the creatures and the environment that they existed in”. The coins, priced from £10 to £1,100, have been designed by the natural history artist Robert Nicholls, guided by one of the museum’s experts, Sandra Chapman. Other coins in the collection will highlight Anning’s discoveries of the plesiosaurus, a large marine reptile, and the dimorphodon, a pterosaur once thought to be a type of flying dragon but more recently identified as a last-resort flyer. Its bite force has been estimated as twice that of a large saltwater crocodile.Īnning, aged about 12, and her brother Joseph made the first discovery of a temnodontosaurus in 1810. Up to 10 metres long, it had the largest eye of any animal, the size of a football, and would hunt in the ocean that once covered much of southern Britain. The first coin released features the temnodontosaurus, one of the largest and fiercest types of ichthyosaur. It is fantastic to see Mary celebrated in such a special way in 2021.” “The Mary Anning collection celebrates a pivotal figure in the understanding of palaeontology, important contributions to science that were rarely acknowledged in Mary’s lifetime. Last year the subject was dinosaurs, this year it will be the Jurassic creatures discovered by Anning.Ĭlare Matterson, the executive director of engagement at the Natural History Museum, said the institution was thrilled to be involved in the project.

The Royal Mint has collaborated with the Natural History Museum on the 50p coins for what is the second in a series called Tales of the Earth. Anning was on the shortlist to be the face of the new £50 note, coming this year, but missed out to Alan Turing.

Royal mint new 50p coins 2024