Archive for November, 2007
The History of the Fifty Pence
by meggie on Nov.12, 2007, under Numismatics
In one of my daydreaming moments, I found myself staring at the 50 pence coin left in my pocket from the night before, and wanted to learn about the figure on the obverse side and about her attributes.
She is the “Britannia”, a personified image of Great Britain, a young woman wearing a Corinthian (or Centurian’s) helmet and dressed in white robes. She holds Poseidon’s three-pronged trident and often, though not in this case, stands in the ocean, symbols of British naval power. She usually also holds or stands beside a Greek hoplite shield with the British Union flag (the Union Jack) embossed on it. At her feet is the British lion, a national animal of Britain and a representative of God.
Her history extends back quite a ways, with little variation. The one major change is the fact that, due to Victorian modesty, Britannia is no longer bare-breasted. Coins with her image were first minted during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian, where she was seated on a rock and had a spiked shield propped beside her. Considering that she was depicted on her own and not in a servile position beside a Roman soldier, and also the similarities between her image and that of Boadicea, Britannia is a surprisingly enigmatic figure in Roman numismatics. She is independent and unconquered, a shocking representation when one takes into account the trouble the British peoples caused the invading Romans throughout their occupation of the island. On top of that, the fact that her image was on a Hadrianic issue and not a Claudian one is confusing: Hadrian was a hellenophile and added his Wall to Britain, while Claudius was credited with conquering the island, a feat that evaded both Caligula and the deified Julius Caesar.
I am going to look into finding one of the Hadrianic issue with Britannia on it to have a closer look at what the Romans chose to represent and also as a segue into the development of my own coin collection. Any information that people find is available in this regard are welcome to contact me through this website.
