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U.K. - Seventieth Wedding Anniversary Five Pounds (11/20/2017 - They made it!)
BillDugan1959
Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
Updated 11/20/2017 - They made it! 70 years is one helluva run!
Photos from the E-sylum Newsletter, not too many details yet:
I like the obverse, the reverse is more generic, although it may convey a sense of partnership (and love of horses).
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Comments
November 20 is the actual date of the 70th wedding anniversary.
I find the reverse to be disappointing. It looks like something the US Mint would produce.
I don't disagree, but fifty or one hundred years from now, the coins will remind people of what a remarkable long era that Elizabeth II (and Philip) presided over.
The reverse here reminds me of the 1993 Five pounds (Coronation 40th), the 1996 Five Pounds (Queen's 70th birthday) and the 1980 Twenty-Five Pence (Queen Mother's 80th Birthday), all of which were weak toy-like designs. But the combination of both the riders and the inscription on the new reverse suggests a partnership.
It's difficult to hit these things out-of-the-ballpark.
Actually, the best thing on this new coin is the portrait of Philip (damn accurate, IMHO). The portrait of the Queen seems not quite as well-executed.
Darn I despise spellchecker!
Yikes, they both look (and are) ancient. Well, time flies. I remember being at a Colonial Middle School and that lovely portrait of the Young QE II hanging on the wall. She was quite nice looking & then Mother Nature and Father Time have worked their magic.
Well, just Love coins, period.
She is 91 and he is 96 ... yes, they are old but remember that Elizabeth's mother lived to be 101.
Well aware of Elizabeth's Mother's great age - there is a four minute clip on You Tube of the Queen, the Queen Mother and Prince Edward arriving at Westminster Abbey for Diana, Princess of Wales' funeral in 1997 (at which point the Queen Mother was 97). Well worth watching.
As an aside, at this point in time, The Duke of Edinburgh is the longest-lived male descendant of Queen Victoria. About a year ago, he scooted past some Swedish Prince who had previously held that record. The people who keep the Stud Book closely track this kind of thing.
Reminds me of a Pete Townsend quote (maybe a lyric); "We tried not to age, but time had its rage."
No complaints, though, they are doing OK for being in their 90s.
Its going to be weird seeing Prince Charles on coinage in the future.
The editorial commentary in the November 2017 issue of 'Coin News' (Token Publishing) noted that only 0.9% of persons in the U.K. are over 90 years old.
Charles' portrait has appeared on two Five Pounds coin in 1998 and 2008 (which coincidentally coincided with his fiftieth and sixtieth birthdays). One might think the 2008 coin portrait might be a kind of trial run - although the likeness was so-so. One might also think that another coin might appear in 2018 to coincide with his seventieth birthday.
I also keep reading that there is a thinly veiled plan in place to establish a Regency should the Queen turn 95, which would occur in 2021.