document_title: Coins of the pound sterling

question_text: when was the first coin in britain made

question_tokens: when was the first coin in britain made

text: Coins of the pound sterling

text: History[edit]

text: Manufacture[edit]

text: The history of the Royal Mint stretches back to AD 886.[3] For many centuries production was in London, initially at the Tower of London, and then at premises nearby in Tower Hill in what is today known as Royal Mint Court. In the 1970s production was transferred to Llantrisant in South Wales.[4] Historically Scotland and England had separate coinage; the last Scottish coins were struck in 1709 shortly after union with England.[5]

text: Coins were originally hand-hammered — an ancient technique in which two dies are struck together with a blank coin between them. This was the traditional method of manufacturing coins in the Western world from the classical Greek era onwards, in contrast with Asia, where coins were traditionally cast. Milled (that is, machine-made) coins were produced first during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and periodically during the subsequent reigns of James I and Charles I, but there was initially opposition to mechanisation from the moneyers, who ensured that most coins continued to be produced by hammering. All British coins produced since 1662 have been milled.

text: Origins of the penny[edit]

text: The English penny first appeared in Anglo-Saxon times, as a silver coin. It was derived from another silver coin, the sceat, of 20 troy grains weight, which was in general circulation in Europe during the Middle Ages. The weight of the English penny was fixed at 22 1⁄2 troy grains (about 1.46 grams) by Offa of Mercia, an 8th-century contemporary of Charlemagne. The coin's designated value, however, was that of 24 troy grains of silver (one pennyweight, or 1⁄240 of a troy pound, or about 1.56 grams), with the difference being a premium attached by virtue of the minting into coins. Thus, 240 pennyweights made one troy pound of silver in weight, and the monetary value of 240 pennies also became known as a "pound". (240 actual pennies, however, weighed only 5400 troy grains, known as tower pound, a unit used only by mints. The tower pound was abolished in the 16th century.) The silver penny remained the primary unit of coinage for about 500 years.

text: The purity of 92.5% silver (i.e., sterling silver) was instituted by Henry II in 1158 with the "Tealby Penny" — a hammered coin.

text: Over the years, the penny was gradually debased until by the 16th century it contained about a third the silver content of a proper troy 24 grain pennyweight.

text: By 1915, a penny was worth around one-sixth what it had been worth during the Middle Ages. British government sources suggest that prices have risen over 61-fold since 1914, so a medieval sterling silver penny might have had purchasing power equivalent to £4.50 today[when?], and a farthing (a quarter penny) would have the value of slightly more than today's[when?] pound (about £1.125).

text: Silver content[edit]

text: From the time of Charlemagne until the 12th century, the silver currency of England was made from the highest purity silver available. But there were disadvantages to minting currency of fine silver, notably the level of wear it suffered, and the ease with which coins could be "clipped", or trimmed.

text: In the 12th century a new standard for English coinage was established by Henry II — the Sterling Silver standard of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. This was a harder-wearing alloy, yet it was still a rather high grade of silver. It went some way towards discouraging the practice of "clipping", though this practice was further discouraged and largely eliminated with the introduction of the milled edge we see on coins today.

text: During the reign of Henry VIII, the silver content was gradually debased, reaching a low of one-third silver. However, in Edward VI's reign, silver purity was increased to sterling again and the first crowns and half-crowns were produced dated 1551. From this point onwards till 1920, sterling was the rule.

text: By 1696, the currency had been seriously weakened by an increase in clipping during the Nine Years' War[6] to the extent that it was decided to recall and replace all hammered silver coinage in circulation.[7] The exercise came close to disaster due to fraud and mismanagement,[8] but was saved by the personal intervention of Isaac Newton after his appointment as Warden of the Mint, a post which was intended to be a sinecure, but which he took seriously.[7] Newton was subsequently given the post of Master of the Mint in 1699. Following the 1707 union between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, Newton used his previous experience to direct the 1707–1710 Scottish recoinage, resulting in a common currency for the new Kingdom of Great Britain. After 15 September 1709 no further silver coins were ever struck in Scotland.[9]

text: As a result of a report written by Newton on 21 September 1717 to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury[10] the bimetallic relationship between gold coins and silver coins was changed by Royal proclamation on 22 December 1717, forbidding the exchange of gold guineas for more than 21 silver shillings.[11] Due to differing valuations in other European countries this unintentionally resulted in a silver shortage, as silver coins were used to pay for imports, while exports were paid for in gold, effectively moving Britain from the silver standard to its first gold standard, rather than the bimetallic standard implied by the proclamation.

text: The coinage reform of 1816 set up a weight/value ratio and physical sizes for silver coins.

text: In 1920, the silver content of all British coins was reduced from 92.5% to 50%, with some of the remainder consisting of manganese, which caused the coins to tarnish to a very dark colour after they had been in circulation for long. Silver was eliminated altogether in 1947, except for Maundy coinage, which returned to the pre-1920 92.5% silver composition.

text: The 1816 weight/value ratio and size system survived the debasement of silver in 1920, and the adoption of token coins of cupronickel in 1947. It even persisted after decimalisation for those coins which had equivalents and continued to be minted with their values in new pence. The UK finally abandoned it in 1992 when smaller, more convenient, "silver" coins were introduced.

text: Monarch's head[edit]

text: All coins since the 17th century have featured a profile of the current monarch's head. The direction in which they face changes with each successive monarch, a pattern that began with the Stuarts, as shown in the table below:

text:
Facing left

Facing right

Cromwell 1653–1658[12]

Charles II 1660–1685

James II 1685–1688

William and Mary 1689–1694
William III 1694–1702

Anne 1702–1714

George I 1714–1727

George II 1727–1760

George III 1760–1820

George IV 1820–1830

William IV 1830–1837

Victoria 1837–1901

Edward VII 1901–1910

George V 1910–1936

Edward VIII 1936

(uncirculated issues)

George VI 1936–1952

Elizabeth II 1952–present

tag: table

text: For the Tudors and pre-Restoration Stuarts, both left- and right-facing portrait images were minted within the reign of a single monarch (left-facing images were more common). In the Middle Ages, portrait images tended to be full face.

text: There was a small quirk in this alternating pattern when Edward VIII became king in January 1936 and was portrayed facing left, the same as his predecessor George V. This was because Edward thought his left to be his best side.[citation needed] However, Edward VIII abdicated in December 1936 and his coins were never put into general circulation. When George VI came to the throne, he had his coins struck with him facing the left, as if Edward VIII's coins had faced right (as they should have done according to tradition). Thus, in a timeline of circulating British coins, George V and VI's coins both feature left-facing portraits, although they follow directly chronologically.

text: Currently circulating coinage[edit]

text: Production and distribution[edit]

text: All genuine UK coins are produced by the Royal Mint. The same coinage is used across the United Kingdom: unlike banknotes, local issues of coins are not produced for different parts of the UK. The pound coin until 2016 was produced in regional designs, but these circulate equally in all parts of the UK (see UK designs, below).

text: Every year, newly minted coins are checked for size, weight, and composition at a Trial of the Pyx. Essentially the same procedure has been used since the 13th century. Assaying is now done by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths on behalf of HM Treasury.

text: The 1p and 2p coins from 1971 are the oldest standard-issue coins still in circulation.

text: Coins from the British dependencies and territories that use the pound as their currency are sometimes found in change in other jurisdictions. Strictly, they are not legal tender in the United Kingdom; however, since they have the same specifications as UK coins, they are sometimes tolerated in commerce, and can readily be used in vending machines.

text: UK-issued coins are, on the other hand, generally fully accepted and freely mixed in other British dependencies and territories that use the pound.

text: An extensive coinage redesign was commissioned by the Royal Mint in 2005, and new designs were gradually introduced into the circulating British coinage from summer 2008. The pre-2008 coins will remain legal tender and are expected to stay in circulation for the foreseeable future (except for the £1 coin).

text: Coins in circulation[edit]

text: Estimated as at March 2016[13]

text:
Denomination
Number of
pieces
(millions)
Face value
(£m)

Two pounds
479
957.036

One pound
1,671
1,671.328

Fifty pence
1,053
526.153

Twenty-five pence
81
20

Twenty pence
3,004
600.828

Ten pence
1,713
171.312

Five pence
4,075
203.764

Two pence
6,714
134.273

One penny
11,430
114.299

Total
30,139
4,643.658

text: Dimensions[edit]

text: Stated as largest value

text:
Denomination
Diameter
(mm)
Thickness
(mm)

Ten pounds
65.0
2.5

Five pounds
38.61
2.5

Two pounds
28.4
2.5

Old one pound
22.5
3.15

2017+ one pound
23.43
2.8

Fifty pence
27.3
1.78

Twenty-five pence
38.61
2.5

Twenty pence
21.4
1.7

Ten pence
24.5
1.85

Five pence
18.0
1.7

Two pence
25.9
2.03

One penny
20.3
1.65

text: UK decimal coinage history[edit]

text: Decimalisation[edit]

text: Since decimalisation on 15 February 1971 the pound (symbol "£") has been divided into 100 pence. (Prior to decimalisation the pound was divided into 20 shillings, each of 12 (old) pence; thus, there were 240 (old) pence to the pound. The value of the pound itself was unchanged by decimalisation.)

text: The first decimal coins – the five pence (5p) and ten pence (10p) — were introduced in 1968 in the run-up to decimalisation in order to familiarise the public with the new system. These initially circulated alongside the pre-decimal coinage and had the same size and value as the existing one shilling and two shilling coins respectively. The fifty pence (50p) coin followed in 1969, replacing the old ten shilling note. The remaining decimal coins – at the time, the half penny (1⁄2p), penny (1p) and two pence (2p) — were issued in 1971 at decimalisation. A quarter-penny coin, to be struck in aluminium, was proposed at the time decimalisation was being planned, but was never minted.

text: The new coins were initially marked with the wording NEW PENNY (singular) or NEW PENCE (plural). The word "new" was dropped in 1982. The symbol "p" was adopted to distinguish the new pennies from the old, which used the symbol "d" (from the Latin denarius, a coin used in the Roman Empire).

text: Post 1982[edit]

text: In the years since decimalisation, a number of changes have been made to the coinage. The twenty pence (20p) coin was introduced in 1982 to fill the gap between the 10p and 50p coins. The pound coin (£1) was introduced in 1983 to replace the Bank of England £1 banknote which was discontinued in 1984 (although the Scottish banks continued producing them for some time afterwards; the last of them, the Royal Bank of Scotland £1 note, is still in production as of 2013[ref]). The designs on the one pound coin change annually in a largely five-year cycle.

text: The decimal half penny coin was demonetised in 1984 as its value was by then too small to be useful. The pre-decimal sixpence, shilling and two shilling coins, which had continued to circulate alongside the decimal coinage with values of 2 1⁄2p, 5p and 10p respectively, were finally withdrawn in 1980, 1990 and 1993 respectively. However, the double florin and crown with values of 20p and 25p respectively have not been withdrawn.

text: In the 1990s, the Royal Mint reduced the sizes of the 5p, 10p, and 50p coins. As a consequence, the oldest 5p coins in circulation date from 1990, the oldest 10p coins from 1992 and the oldest 50p coins come from 1997. Since 1997, many special commemorative designs of 50p have been issued. Some of these are found fairly frequently in circulation and some are rare. They are all legal tender.

text: The specifications and dates of introduction of the 5p, 10p, and 50p coins refer to the current versions. These coins were originally issued in larger sizes in 1968 and 1969 respectively.

text: With their high copper content (97%), the intrinsic value of pre-1992 1p and 2p coins increased with the surge in metal prices of the mid-2000s, until by 2006 the coins would, if melted down, have been worth about 50% more than their face value.[14] (To do this, however, would be illegal, and they would have had to be melted in huge quantities, using quite a bit of energy, to achieve significant gain.) In later years, the price of copper fell considerably. Copper plated steel coins were introduced to replace them.

text: A circulating bimetallic two pound (£2) coin was introduced in 1998 (first minted in, and dated, 1997). There had previously been unimetallic commemorative £2 coins which did not normally circulate. This tendency to use the two pound coin for commemorative issues has continued since the introduction of the bimetallic coin, and a few of the older unimetallic coins have since entered circulation.

text: There are also commemorative issues of crowns. Before 1990, these had a face value of twenty-five pence (25p), equivalent to the five shilling crown used in pre-decimal Britain. However, in 1990 crowns were redenominated with a face value of five pounds (£5)[15] as the previous value was considered not sufficient for such a high-status coin. The size and weight of the coin remained exactly the same. Decimal crowns are generally not found in circulation as their market value is likely to be higher than their face value, but they remain legal tender.

text: 2008 redesign[edit]

text: In 2008, UK coins underwent an extensive redesign, which changed the reverse designs, and some other details, of all coins except the £2.[16] The original intention was to exclude both the £1 and £2 coins from the redesign because they were "relatively new additions" to the coinage, but it was later decided to include the £1 coin.[17] This was the first wholesale change to British coinage since the first decimal coins were introduced in April 1968. The new coins were initially to be put into circulation in early 2008,[18] although they did not actually start to appear until mid-2008.

text: The major design feature was the introduction of a reverse design shared across six coins (1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p), that can be pieced together to form an image of the Royal Shield. This was the first time a coin design had been featured across multiple coins in this way.[16] Completing the set, the new £1 reverse features the Shield in its entirety. The effigy of the Queen, by Ian Rank-Broadley, continued to appear on the obverse of all the coins[16] until 2015 when it was replaced by the fifth and latest portrait, designed by Jody Clark.

text: On all coins, the beading (ring of small dots) around the edge of the obverses has been removed. The obverse of the 20p coin has also been amended to incorporate the year, which had been on the reverse of the coin since its introduction in 1982 (giving rise to an unusual issue of a mule version without any date at all). The orientation of both sides of the 50p coin has been rotated through 180 degrees, meaning the bottom of the coin is now a corner rather than a flat edge. The numerals showing the decimal value of each coin, previously present on all coins except £2 and £1, have been removed, leaving the values spelled out in words only.

text: The redesign was the result of a competition launched by the Royal Mint in August 2005, which closed on 14 November 2005. The competition was open to the public and received over 4,000 entries.[16] The winning entry was unveiled on 2 April 2008, designed by Matthew Dent.[16] The Royal Mint stated the new designs were "reflecting a twenty-first century Britain".[18] An advisor to the Royal Mint described the new coins as "post-modern" and said that this was something that could not have been done 50 years previously.[19]

text: The redesign was criticised by some for having no specifically Welsh symbol (such as the Welsh Dragon), because the Royal Shield does not include a specifically Welsh symbol. Wrexham MP Ian Lucas, who was also campaigning to have the Welsh Dragon included on the Union Flag, called the omission "disappointing", and stated that he would be writing to the Queen to request that the Royal Standard be changed to include Wales.[20] The Royal Mint stated that "the Shield of the Royal Arms is symbolic of the whole of the United Kingdom and as such, represents Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland."[20] Designer Dent stated "I am a Welshman and proud of it, but I never thought about the fact we did not have a dragon or another representation of Wales on the design because as far as I am concerned Wales is represented on the Royal Arms. This was never an issue for me."[20]

text: The designs were also criticised for not including a portrayal of Britannia, the female personification of Britain whose image has appeared on British coinage continuously since 1672.[21] In response to the concern over the loss of Britannia, the chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee stated "There are 806 million Britannias in circulation at the moment [on the old 50p coin]. They will remain in circulation. They will see all of us out, until they die a natural death. So whatever happens, Britannia stays around".[16]

text: The Royal Mint's choice of an inexperienced coin designer to produce the new coinage was criticised by Virginia Ironside, daughter of Christopher Ironside who designed the previous UK coins. She stated that the new designs were "totally unworkable as actual coins", due to the loss of a numerical currency identifier, and the smaller typeface used.[22]

text: The German news magazine Der Spiegel claimed that the redesign signalled the UK's intention "not to join the euro any time soon".[23]

text: Steel 5p and 10p coins[edit]

text: As of 2012, 5p and 10p coins have been issued in nickel-plated steel, and much of the remaining cupronickel types withdrawn, in order to retrieve more expensive metals. The new coins are 11% thicker to maintain the same weight.[24][25]

text: There are heightened nickel allergy concerns over the new coins. Studies commissioned by the Royal Mint found no increased discharge of nickel from the coins when immersed in artificial sweat. However, an independent study found that the friction from handling results in four times as much nickel exposure as from the older-style coins. Sweden already plans to desist from using nickel in coins from 2015. [26]

text: 2016 £1 coin design change[edit]

text: In 2016, the £1 coin design was changed from a round single metal design to a 12 sided bi-metal design, with a slightly larger diameter.

text: Summary of denominations[edit]

text:
Half penny (1⁄2p; £0.005) 1971–1984, demonetised since then.
One penny (1p; £0.01), 1971–present
Two pence (2p; £0.02), 1971–present
Five pence (5p; £0.05), 1968–1990 (reduced to present size); 1990–present
Ten pence (10p; £0.10), 1968–1992 (reduced to present size); 1992–present
Twenty pence (20p; £0.20), 1982–present
Twenty-five pence or crown (25p; £0.25), 1972–1981 (special issues, not in common circulation)
Fifty pence (50p; £0.50), 1969–1997 (reduced to present size); 1997–present
One pound (£1.00), 1983–2016 (design changed from round coin to twelve-sided one),[27] 2017–present
Two pounds (£2.00), 1986–1997 (special issues); 1997–present (general issue – bimetallic)
Five pounds or crown (£5.00), 1990–present (special issues, not in common circulation though still legal tender)[1]
Twenty pounds (£20.00), 2013–present (special issues, not in common circulation though still legal tender)
Fifty Pounds (£50.00), 2015–present (special issues, not in common circulation though still legal tender)
One Hundred pounds (£100.00), 2015–present (special issues, not in common circulation though still legal tender)

tag: ul

text: Specifications[edit]

text: Circulating coinage[edit]

text:
Denomination
Obverse
Reverse
Diameter
Thickness
Mass
Composition
Edge
Introduced

One penny
Queen Elizabeth II
Crowned portcullis with chains
"New Penny" 1971–1981
"One Penny" 1982–2008
20.3 mm
1.52 mm (bronze)
1.65 mm (copper-plated steel)
3.56 g
Bronze (1971 – Sept 1992)
Copper-plated steel (Sept 1992 – 2008)
Smooth
1971

Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom
1.65 mm
Copper-plated steel
2008

Two pence
Plume of ostrich feathers within a coronet
"New Pence" 1971–1981
"Two Pence" 1982–2008
25.9 mm
1.85 mm (bronze)
2.03 mm (copper-plated steel)
7.12 g
Bronze (97% copper, 2.5% zinc, 0.5% tin) – until September 1992
Copper-plated steel – September 1992 – 2008, except in 1998 when the 2p was made in both alloys
1971

Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom
2.03 mm
Copper-plated steel
2008

Five pence*
Queen Elizabeth II
Crowned thistle
18 mm
1.7 mm
3.25 g
Cupronickel (75:25)
Milled
1990

Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom
1.7 mm (cupronickel)
1.89 mm (nickel-plated steel)
Cupronickel (75:25) 1990-2011
Nickel-plated steel 2012–Present
2008

Ten pence*
Crowned lion
24.5 mm
1.85 mm
6.5 g
Cupronickel (75:25)
1992

Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom
1.85 mm (cupronickel)
2.05 mm (nickel-plated steel)
Cupronickel (75:25) 1992-2012
Nickel-plated steel 2012–Present
2008

Twenty pence
Crowned Tudor Rose
21.4 mm
1.7 mm
5 g
Cupronickel (84:16)
Smooth, Reuleaux heptagon
1982

Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom
2008

Twenty-five pence
No standard reverse design
38.61 mm
2.89 mm
28.28 g
Cupronickel
Milled, with variable inscription
1972 (commemorative, not in general circulation)

Fifty pence*
Britannia and lion
27.3 mm
1.78 mm
8 g
Cupronickel (75:25)
Smooth, Reuleaux heptagon
1997

Various commemorative designs
1998

Segment of the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom
2008

One pound
Queen Elizabeth II
Rose, leek, thistle, and shamrock encircled by a coronet
23.03–23.43 mm
2.8 mm
8.75 g
Inner: Nickel-plated alloy
Outer: Nickel-brass
Alternately milled and plain (12-sided)
28 March 2017 [28]

Two pounds†
No standard reverse design
28.4 mm

15.98 g
Nickel-brass
Milled
1986 (commemorative, not in general circulation)

Design by Bruce Rushin
28.4 mm
2.5 mm
12 g
Inner: Cupronickel
Outer: Nickel-brass
Milled with variable inscription and/or decoration
1997 (issued 1998)

Various commemorative designs
1999

Five pounds
Queen Elizabeth II
No standard reverse design
38.61 mm
2.89 mm
28.28 g
Cupronickel
Milled, with variable inscription
1990 (commemorative, not in general circulation)

text: * The specifications and dates of introduction of the 5p, 10p, and 50p coins refer to the current versions. These coins were originally issued in larger sizes in 1968 and 1969 respectively.

text: †This coin was originally issued in a smaller size in a single metal in 1986 for special issues only. It was redesigned as a bi-metallic issue for general circulation in 1997.

text: With their high copper content (97%), the intrinsic value of pre-1992 1p and 2p coins increased with the surge in metal prices of the mid-2000s, until by 2006 the coins, would, if melted down, have been worth about 50% more than their face value.[14] (To do this, however, would be illegal, and they would have had to be melted in huge quantities to achieve significant gain.) In subsequent years the price of copper fell considerably from these peaks.[30]

text: Commemorative Issues[edit]

text: The following are commemorative issues and are seldom encountered in normal circulation due to their precious metal content.

text:
Denomination
Obverse
Reverse
Diameter
Thickness
Mass
Composition
Edge
Introduced

Twenty-five pence
Queen Elizabeth II
No standard reverse design
38.61 mm
2.89 mm
31.10 g
Silver
Milled, with variable inscription
1972

Five pounds
38.61 mm
2.89 mm
31.10 g
Milled, with variable inscription and/or decoration
1990

Ten Pounds
65.0 mm
2.5 mm
155.5 g
Milled
2012

Twenty pounds
27.00 mm

15.71 g
2013

Fifty Pounds
Britannia
34.00 mm

31 g
2015

One Hundred Pounds
Elizabeth Tower 'Big Ben'
40.00 mm

62.86 g

text: Obsolete coinage[edit]

text: The following decimal coins have been withdrawn from circulation and have ceased to be legal tender.

text:
Denomination
Obverse
Reverse
Diameter
Thickness
Mass
Composition
Edge
Introduced
Withdrawn

Half Penny
Queen Elizabeth II
St Edward's Crown
17.4 mm
1 mm
1.78 g
Bronze
Smooth
1971
1984

Five pence*
Queen Elizabeth II
Crowned Thistle
23.59 mm
1.7 mm
5.65 g
Cupronickel
Milled
1968
1990

Ten pence*
Crowned Lion
28.5 mm
1.85 mm
11.31 g
1968
1992

Fifty pence*
Seated Britannia alongside a Lion
30.0 mm
1.78 mm
13.5 g
Smooth, Reuleaux heptagon
1969
1997

Various commemorative designs
1973

One Pound†
Queen Elizabeth II
Numerous different designs
22.5 mm
3.15 mm
9.5 g
Nickel-brass
Milled with variable inscription and/or decoration
1983
October 15, 2017

Royal Shield
2008

text: * The specifications and dates of 5p, 10p, and 50p coins refer to the larger sizes issued in 1968 and 1969 respectively.

text: † The specification refers to the round coin issued from 1983-2016. Although obsolete, this coin is still redeemable at banks and still legal tender on the Isle of Man.

text: UK designs[edit]

text: Obverse[edit]

text: All modern British coins feature a profile of the current monarch's head on the obverse. There has been only one monarch since decimalisation, Queen Elizabeth II, so her head appears on all decimal coins, facing to the right (see also Monarch's head, above). However, five different effigies have been used, reflecting the Queen's changing appearance as she has aged. These are the effigies by Mary Gillick (until 1968), Arnold Machin (1968–1984), Raphael Maklouf (1985–1997), Ian Rank-Broadley (1998–2015), and Jody Clark (from 2015).[31]

text: All current coins carry a Latin inscription whose full form is ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FIDEI DEFENSATRIX, meaning "Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen and Defender of the Faith". The inscription appears on the coins in any of several abbreviated forms, typically ELIZABETH II D G REG F D.

text: From 2008, the circle of dots between the lettering and the rim was removed from the 1p, 2p, 5, and 10p and £1. It was never on the 20p and 50p, and is retained on the £2.

text: Original reverse designs[edit]

text: The original standard-issue decimal coinage reverse designs are as follows:

text:
1⁄2p (discontinued 1984) — A crown, symbolising the monarch.
1p – A crowned portcullis with chains (the badge of the Houses of Parliament).
2p – The Prince of Wales's feathers: a plume of ostrich feathers within a coronet.
5p – A crowned thistle, formally "The Badge of Scotland, a thistle royally crowned".
10p – A crowned lion, part of the British Coat of Arms (and often is the national animal of England)
20p – A crowned Tudor Rose, a traditional heraldic emblem of England (NB With incuse design and lettering).
50p – Britannia and lion.
£1 – Numerous different designs (see below).
£2 – An abstract design of concentric circles, representing technological development from the Iron Age to the modern day electronic age.

text: Up until the 2008 redesign, the reverse designs of the one pound coin have followed a five-year cycle. This cycle successively represents, by using royal heraldic badges, each of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, namely Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England, with the Royal Coat of Arms used in every fifth year. From 2008 until 2016, a single design based on the Royal Coat of Arms was issued every year, with additional designs representing the nations issued sporadically.

text:
Reverse designs (Images: [2])

Royal designs
Themed designs

Theme
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland
England

1983: Royal Coat of Arms
National plants
1984: Thistle
1985: Leek
1986: Flax
1987: Oak

1988: Royal Shield & Crown
1989: Thistle
1990: Leek
1991: Flax
1992: Oak

1993: Royal Coat of Arms
National symbols
1994: Lion Rampant
1995: Welsh dragon
1996: Celtic cross
1997: The Three Lions

1998: Royal Coat of Arms
1999: Lion Rampant
2000: Welsh dragon
2001: Celtic cross
2002: The Three Lions

2003: Royal Coat of Arms
Bridges
2004: Forth Bridge
2005: Menai Suspension Bridge
2006: MacNeill's Egyptian Arch
2007: Gateshead Millennium Bridge

2008–2016: Royal Shield
Capitals
2011: Edinburgh
2011: Cardiff
2010: Belfast
2010: London

National plants
2014: Thistle & bluebell stem
2013: Leek & daffodil plant
2014: Shamrock & flax stem
2013: Rose & oak twig

2015: Royal Coat of Arms[32]
Heraldic beasts
2016: A unicorn (for Scotland), a dragon (for Wales), an Irish elk (for Northern Ireland) and a lion (for England).[33]

text: Royal Shield reverse[edit]

text: The 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p coin designs post 2008 each depicts a part of the Royal Shield, and form the whole shield when they are placed together in the appropriate arrangement. The Royal Shield is seen in its entirety on the £1 coin.[34]

text:
The 1p coin depicts the lower part of the first quarter and the upper part of the third quarter of the shield, showing the lions passant of England and the harp of Ireland respectively
The 2p coin depicts most of the second quarter of the shield, showing the lion rampant of Scotland
The 5p coin depicts the centre of the shield, showing the meeting and parts of the constituent parts of the shield
The 10p coin depicts most of the first quarter of the shield, containing the three lions passant of England
The 20p coin depicts the lower part of the second quarter and upper part of the fourth quarter, showing the lion rampant of Scotland and the lions passant of England respectively
The 50p coin depicts the point of the shield and the bottom portions of the second and third quarters showing the harp of Ireland and lions passant of England respectively
The £1 coin depicts the whole of the Royal Shield
The standard-issue £2 coin design remains unchanged

text: Edge designs[edit]

text: The 1p, 2p, 20p and 50p coins have smooth edges. The 5p, 10p, £1 and £2 coins have milled edges. The milling, in combination with the non-circular shape of the 20p and 50p, serve as the primary means of identification and differentiation between coinage for blind or visually impaired people. Historically, milling also served to discourage coin clipping.

text: The £1 coin and £2 coins have, inscribed into the milling, words or a decoration related to their face design. Many issues of the £1 coin carry one of the following edge inscriptions:

text:
DECUS ET TUTAMEN — Latin for "An ornament and a safeguard", a phrase taken from Virgil's Aeneid, and here referring to the fact that the inscription serves both as a decorative feature and as a safeguard against the clipping of the coin's edges (this is not a modern concern, but harks back to the days when circulating coins were made of precious metals). This appears on coins with English-themed, Northern Irish-themed or general UK-themed designs.
PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD — Welsh for "True am I to my country", from the Welsh national anthem. This appears on coins with Welsh-themed designs.
NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT — Latin for "No-one provokes me with impunity", the motto of the Order of the Thistle. This appears on coins with Scottish-themed designs.

text: The standard-issue £2 coin carries the edge inscription STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS. Other designs of the coin are issued from time to time to commemorate special events or anniversaries. These may have special edge inscriptions relevant to the theme, or the edge inscription may be replaced by a decorative motif.

text: Commemorative designs[edit]

text: Circulating fifty pence and two pound coins have been issued with various commemorative reverse designs, typically to mark the anniversaries of historical events or the births of notable people.

text: Three commemorative designs were issued of the large version of the 50p: in 1973 (the EEC), 1992–3 (EC presidency) and 1994 (D-Day anniversary). Commemorative designs of the smaller 50p coin have been issued (alongside the Britannia standard issue) in 1998 (two designs), 2000, and from 2003 to 2007 yearly (two designs in 2006). For a complete list, see Fifty pence (British decimal coin).

text: Prior to 1997, the two pound coin was minted in commemorative issues only – in 1986, 1989, 1994, 1995 and 1996. Commemorative £2 coins have been regularly issued since 1999, alongside the standard-issue bi-metallic coins which were introduced in 1997. One or two designs have been minted each year, with the exception of none in 2000, and four regional 2002 issues marking the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. As well as a distinct reverse design, these coins have an edge inscription relevant to the subject. The anniversary themes are continued until at least 2009, with two designs announced. For a complete list, see Two pounds (British decimal coin).

text: Non-UK coinage[edit]

text: Outside the United Kingdom, the British Crown Dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey use the pound sterling as their currencies. However, they produce local issues of coinage in the same denominations and specifications, but with different designs. These circulate freely alongside UK coinage and English, Northern Irish, and Scottish banknotes within these territories, but must be converted in order to be used in the UK. The island of Alderney also produces occasional commemorative coins. (See coins of the Jersey pound, coins of the Guernsey pound, and Alderney pound for details.). The Isle of Man is a unique case among the Crown Dependencies, issuing its own currency, the Manx pound. While the Isle of Man recognises the Pound Sterling as a secondary currency, coins of the Manx pound are not legal tender in the UK.

text: The pound sterling is also the official currency of the British overseas territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,[35] British Antarctic Territory[36] and Tristan da Cunha.[37] South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands produces occasional special collectors' sets of coins.[38] In 2008, British Antarctic Territory issued a £2 coin commemorating the centenary of Britain's claim to the region.[39]

text: The currencies of the British overseas territories of Gibraltar, The Falkland Islands and Saint Helena/Ascension — namely the Gibraltar pound, Falkland Islands pound and Saint Helena pound — are pegged one-to-one to the pound sterling but are technically separate currencies. These territories issue their own coinage, again with the same denominations and specifications as the UK coinage but with local designs, as coins of the Gibraltar pound, coins of the Falkland Islands pound and coins of the Saint Helena pound.

text: The other British overseas territories do not use the pound as their official currency.

text: Non-circulating coins[edit]

text: 25p and £5 coins[edit]

text: Although these coins are in practice very rarely found in circulation, they are for convenience described with the circulating coins, above.

text: Maundy money[edit]

text: Maundy money is a ceremonial coinage traditionally given to the poor, and nowadays awarded annually to deserving senior citizens. There are Maundy coins in denominations of one, two, three and four pence. They bear dates from 1822 to the present and are minted in very small quantities. Though they are legal tender in the UK, they are never encountered in circulation. The pre-decimal Maundy pieces have the same legal tender status and value as post-decimal ones, and effectively increased in face value by 140% upon decimalisation. Their numismatic value is much greater.

text: Maundy coins still bear the original portrait of the Queen as used in the circulating coins of the first years of her reign.

text: Bullion coinage[edit]

text: The traditional bullion coin issued by Britain is the gold sovereign, formerly a circulating coin with a face value of one pound. The Royal Mint continues to produce gold sovereigns and half sovereigns, with 2013 list prices of, respectively, £495 and £250.[40]

text: Between 1987–2012 a series of bullion coins, the Britannia, was issued, containing 1-troy-ounce (31 g), 1⁄2-troy-ounce (16 g), 1⁄4-troy-ounce (7.8 g), and 1⁄10-troy-ounce (3.1 g) of fine gold at a millesimal fineness of 916 (22 carat) and with face values of £100, £50, £25, and £10.

text: Since 2013 Britannia bullion contains 1-troy-ounce (31 g) of fine gold at a millesimal fineness of 999 (24 carat).

text: Between 1997–2012 silver bullion coins have also been produced under the name “Britannias”. The alloy used was Britannia silver (millesimal fineness 958). The silver coins were available in 1-troy-ounce (31 g), 1⁄2-troy-ounce (16 g), 1⁄4-troy-ounce (7.8 g), and 1⁄10-troy-ounce (3.1 g) sizes. Since 2013 the alloy used is silver at a (millesimal fineness 999). In 2016 the Royal Mint launched a series of 10 Queen's Beasts bullion coins,[41] one for each beast available in both gold and silver.

text: The Royal Mint also issues silver, gold and platinum proof sets of the circulating coins, as well as gift products such as gold coins set into jewellery.

text: Pre-decimal coinage[edit]

text: System[edit]

text: Before decimalisation in 1971, the pound was divided into 240 pence rather than 100, though it was rarely expressed in this way. Rather it was expressed in terms of pounds, shillings and pence, where:

text:
£1 = 20 shillings (20s).
1 shilling = 12 pence (12d).

text: Thus: £1 = 240 pence. The penny was further subdivided at various times, though these divisions vanished as inflation made them irrelevant:

text: 1 penny = 2 halfpennies and (earlier) 4 farthings (half farthing, a third of a farthing, and quarter farthing coins were minted in the late 19th century, and into the early 20th century in the case of the third farthing, but circulated only in certain British colonies and not in the UK).

text: Using the example of five shillings and sixpence, the standard ways of writing shillings and pence were:

text:
5s 6d
5/6
5/- for 5 shillings only, with the dash to stand for zero pennies.

text: The sum of 5/6 would be spoken as "five shillings and sixpence" or "five and six".

text: The abbreviation for the old penny, d, was derived from the Roman denarius, and the abbreviation for the shilling, s, from the Roman solidus. The shilling was also denoted by the slash symbol, also called a solidus for this reason, which was originally an adaptation of the long s.[42] The symbol "£", for the pound, is derived from the first letter of the Latin word for pound, libra.[43]

text: A similar pre-decimal system operated in France, also based on the Roman currency, consisting of the livre (L), sol or sou (s) and denier (d). Until 1816 another similar system was used in the Netherlands, consisting of the gulden (G), stuiver (s; 1⁄20 G) and duit, (d; 1⁄8 s or 1⁄160 G).

text: Denominations[edit]

text: In the years just prior to decimalisation, the circulating British coins were:

text:
Denomination
Obverse
Reverse
Diameter
Thickness
Mass
Composition
Edge
Introduced
Withdrawn

Farthing (1⁄4d)
Various Monarchs
Wren (Britannia on early mintages)
20.19 mm

2.83 g
Bronze
Smooth
1860
1961

Half Penny (1⁄2d)
Golden Hind (Britannia on early mintages)
25.48 mm

5.67 g
1969

Penny (1d)
Britannia
31 mm

1971

Threepence (3d)
King George VI 1944-1952
Queen Elizabeth II 1953–1971
Thrift until 1952 Crowned portcullis with chains
21.0–21.8 mm
2.5 mm
6.8 g
Nickel-brass
Plain (12-sided)
1944
1971

Sixpence (6d)
King George VI 1946–1952
Queen Elizabeth II 1953–1971
Floral design - Four Home Nations
19.41 mm

2.83 g
Cupronickel
Milled
1947
1980

Shilling (1/-)
Coat of Arms of England or Scotland
23.60 mm
1.7 mm
5.66 g
1990

Florin (2/-)
Crowned rose flanked by a thistle and shamrock
28.5 mm
1.85 mm
11.31 g
1992

Half crown (2/6)
Crowned Royal Shield
32.31 mm

14.14 g
1969

Crown (5/-)
Various commemorative designs
38 mm
2.89 mm
28.28 g
1951
Present

text: The farthing (1⁄4d) had been demonetised on 1 January 1961, while the crown (5/-) was issued periodically as a commemorative coin but rarely found in circulation.

text: The crown, half crown, florin, shilling, and sixpence were cupronickel coins (in historical times silver or silver alloy); the penny, halfpenny, and farthing were bronze; and the threepence was a twelve-sided nickel-brass coin (historically it was a small silver coin).

text: Some of the pre-decimalisation coins with exact decimal equivalent values continued in use after 1971 alongside the new coins, albeit with new names (the shilling became equivalent to the 5p coin, with the florin equating to 10p), and the others were withdrawn almost immediately. The use of florins and shillings as legal tender in this way ended in 1991 and 1993 when the 5p and 10p coins were replaced with smaller versions. Indeed, while pre-decimalisation shillings were used as 5p coins, for a while after decimalisation many people continued to call the new 5p coin a shilling, since it remained 1⁄20 of a pound, but was now counted as 5p (five new pence) instead of 12d (twelve old pennies). The pre-decimalisation sixpence, also known as a sixpenny bit or sixpenny piece, was equivalent to 2 1⁄2p, but was demonetised in 1980.

text:
Pre-decimal coins of the pound sterling

Five pounds
Two pounds
Sovereign
(Pound)
Crown
Half crown
Florin
Shilling
Sixpence
Groat
Threepence
Penny
Halfpenny
Farthing
Half farthing
Third farthing
Quarter farthing

Five pounds
1
2 1⁄2
5
20
40
50
100
200
300
400
1200
2400
4800
9600
14400
19200

Two pounds
2⁄5
1
2
8
16
20
40
80
120
160
480
960
1920
3840
5760
7680

Sovereign
(Pound)
1⁄5
1⁄2
1
4
8
10
20
40
60
80
240
480
960
1920
2880
3840

Crown
1⁄20
1⁄8
1⁄4
1
2
2 1⁄2
5
10
15
20
60
120
240
480
720
960

Half crown
1⁄40
1⁄16
1⁄8
1⁄2
1
1 1⁄4
2 1⁄2
5
7 1⁄2
10
30
60
120
240
360
480

Florin
1⁄50
1⁄20
1⁄10
2⁄5
4⁄5
1
2
4
6
8
24
48
96
192
288
384

Shilling
1⁄100
1⁄40
1⁄20
1⁄5
2⁄5
1⁄2
1
2
3
4
12
24
48
96
144
192

Sixpence
1⁄200
1⁄80
1⁄40
1⁄10
1⁄5
1⁄4
1⁄2
1
1 1⁄2
2
6
12
24
48
72
96

Groat
1⁄300
1⁄120
1⁄60
1⁄15
2⁄15
1⁄6
1⁄3
2⁄3
1
1 1⁄3
4
8
16
32
48
64

Threepence
1⁄400
1⁄160
1⁄80
1⁄20
1⁄10
1⁄8
1⁄4
1⁄2
3⁄4
1
3
6
12
24
36
48

Penny
1⁄1200
1⁄480
1⁄240
1⁄60
1⁄30
1⁄24
1⁄12
1⁄6
1⁄4
1⁄3
1
2
4
8
12
16

Halfpenny
1⁄2400
1⁄960
1⁄480
1⁄120
1⁄60
1⁄48
1⁄24
1⁄12
1⁄8
1⁄6
1⁄2
1
2
4
6
8

Farthing
1⁄4800
1⁄1920
1⁄960
1⁄240
1⁄120
1⁄96
1⁄48
1⁄24
1⁄16
1⁄12
1⁄4
1⁄2
1
2
3
4

Half farthing
1⁄9600
1⁄3840
1⁄1920
1⁄480
1⁄240
1⁄192
1⁄96
1⁄48
1⁄36
1⁄24
1⁄8
1⁄4
1⁄2
1
1 1⁄2
2

Third farthing
1⁄14400
1⁄5760
1⁄2880
1⁄720
1⁄360
1⁄288
1⁄144
1⁄72
1⁄48
1⁄36
1⁄12
1⁄6
1⁄3
2⁄3
1
1 1⁄3

Quarter farthing
1⁄19200
1⁄7680
1⁄3840
1⁄960
1⁄480
1⁄384
1⁄192
1⁄96
1⁄72
1⁄48
1⁄16
1⁄8
1⁄4
1⁄2
3⁄4
1

text: Slang and everyday usage[edit]

text: Some pre-decimalisation coins or denominations became commonly known by colloquial and slang terms, perhaps the most well known being bob for a shilling, and quid for a pound. A farthing was a mag, a silver threepence was a joey and the later nickel-brass threepence was called a threepenny bit (/ˈθrʌpni/ or /ˈθrɛpni/ bit, i.e. thrup'ny or threp'ny bit – the apostrophe was pronounced on a scale from full "e" down to complete omission); a sixpence was a tanner, the two-shilling coin or florin was a two-bob bit. Bob is still used in phrases such as "earn/worth a bob or two",[44] and "bob‐a‐job week". The two shillings and sixpence coin or half-crown was a half dollar, also sometimes referred to as two and a kick. A value of two pence was universally pronounced /ˈtʌpəns/ tuppence, a usage which is still heard today, especially among older people. The unaccented suffix "-pence", pronounced /pəns/, was similarly appended to the other numbers up to twelve; thus "fourpence", "sixpence-three-farthings", "twelvepence-ha'penny", but "eighteen pence" would usually be said "one-and-six".

text: Quid remains as popular slang for one or more pounds to this day in Britain in the form "a quid" and then "two quid", and so on. Similarly, in some parts of the country, bob continued to represent one-twentieth of a pound, that is five new pence, and two bob is 10p.[45]

text: The introduction of decimal currency caused a new casual usage to emerge, where any value in pence is spoken using the suffix pee: e.g. "twenty-three pee" or, in the early years, "two-and-a-half pee" rather than the previous "tuppence-ha'penny". Amounts over a pound are normally spoken thus: "five pounds forty". A value with less than ten pence over the pound is sometimes spoken like this: "one pound and a penny", "three pounds and fourpence". The slang term "bit" has almost disappeared from use completely, although in Scotland a fifty pence is sometimes referred to as a "ten bob bit". Decimal denomination coins are generally described using the terms piece or coin, for example, "a fifty-pee piece", a "ten-pence coin".

text: Coins in the colonies[edit]

text: A 1 1⁄2d coin was circulated in Jamaica in the nineteenth century. Jamaicans referred to the coin as a "quatty".[46]

text: Minting errors reaching circulation[edit]

text: Coins with errors in the minting process that reach circulation are often seen as valuable items by coin collectors.

text: In 1983, the Royal Mint mistakenly produced some two pence pieces with the old wording "New Pence" on the reverse (tails) side, when the design had been changed from 1982 to "Two Pence".

text: In June 2009, the Royal Mint estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 dateless 20 pence coins had entered circulation, the first undated British coin to enter circulation in more than 300 years. It resulted from the accidental combination of old and new face tooling in a production batch, creating what is known as a mule, following the 2008 redesign which moved the date from the reverse (tails) to the obverse (heads) side.[47]

text: Regal Titles[edit]

text: From a very early date, British coins have been inscribed with the name of the ruler of the kingdom in which they were produced, and a longer or shorter title, always in Latin; among the earliest distinctive English coins are the silver pennies of Offa of Mercia, which were inscribed with the legend OFFA REX "King Offa". As the legends became longer, words in the inscriptions were often abbreviated so that they could fit on the coin; identical legends have often been abbreviated in different ways depending upon the size and decoration of the coin. Inscriptions which go around the edge of the coin generally have started at the center of the top edge and proceeded in a clockwise direction. A very lengthy legend would be continued on the reverse side of the coin. All but Edward III and both Elizabeths use Latinised names (which would have been EDWARDUS and ELIZABETHA respectively).

text: More recent legends include the following (the full unabbreviated text is given here):

text:
EDWARD DEI GRA REX ANGL Z FRANC D HYB(E) "Edward III, by the grace of God King of England and France, Lord of Ireland."
EDWARD DEI GRA REX ANGL DNS HYB Z ACQ "Edward, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland and Aquitaine." This version was used after the Treaty of Brétigny (1360) when Edward III temporarily gave up his claim to the French throne.
EDWARD DEI G REX ANG Z FRA DNS HYB Z ACT "Edward, by the grace of God King of England and France, Lord of Ireland and Aquitaine." This version was used after Anglo-French relations broke down and Edward III resumed his claim.
HENRICUS VII DEI GRATIA REX ANGLIAE & FRANCIAE "Henry VII by the Grace of God, King of England and France". France had been claimed by the English continuously since 1369.
HENRICUS VIII DEI GRATIA REX ANGLIAE & FRANCIAE "Henry VIII by the Grace of God, King of England and France". The Arabic numeral 8 was also used instead of the Roman VIII.
HENRICUS VIII DEI GRATIA ANGLIAE FRANCIAE & HIBERNIAE REX "Henry VIII by the Grace of God, Of England, France and Ireland, King". Henry VIII made Ireland a kingdom in 1541. The Arabic numeral 8 was also used instead of the Roman VIII.
PHILIPPUS ET MARIA DEI GRATIA REX & REGINA "Philip and Mary by the Grace of God, King and Queen". The names of the realms were omitted from the coin for reasons of space.
ELIZABETH DEI GRATIA ANGLIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REGINA "Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of England, France, and Ireland, Queen".
IACOBUS DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King". James, King of Scotland, by succeeding to the English throne united the two kingdoms in his person; he dubbed the combination of the two kingdoms "Great Britain" (the name of the whole island) though they remained legislatively distinct for more than a century afterwards.
CAROLUS DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "Charles, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King".
OLIVARIUS DEI GRATIA REIPUBLICAE ANGLIAE SCOTIAE HIBERNIAE & CETERORUM PROTECTOR "Oliver, by the Grace of God, of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland etc., Protector". Cromwell ruled as a monarch but did not claim the title of king.
CAROLUS II DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "Charles II, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King".
IACOBUS II DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "James II, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King".
GULIELMUS ET MARIA DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX ET REGINA "William and Mary by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King and Queen". The spouses William and Mary ruled jointly.
GULIELMUS III DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX "William III by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King". William continued to rule alone after his wife's death.
ANNA DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REGINA "Anne by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Queen".
GEORGIUS DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX FIDEI DEFENSOR BRUNSVICENSIS ET LUNEBURGENSIS DUX SACRI ROMANI IMPERII ARCHITHESAURARIUS ET ELECTOR "George by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, of Brunswick and Lüneburg Duke, of the Holy Roman Empire Archtreasurer and Elector." George I added the titles he already possessed as Elector of Hanover. He also added the title "Defender of the Faith", which had been borne by the English kings since Henry VIII, but which had previously only rarely appeared on coins.
GEORGIUS II DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX FIDEI DEFENSOR BRUNSVICENSIS ET LUNEBURGENSIS DUX SACRI ROMANI IMPERII ARCHITHESAURARIUS ET ELECTOR "George II by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, of Brunswick and Lüneburg Duke, of the Holy Roman Empire Archtreasurer and Elector."
GEORGIUS III DEI GRATIA MAGNAE BRITANNIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBERNIAE REX FIDEI DEFENSOR BRUNSVICENSIS ET LUNEBURGENSIS DUX SACRI ROMANI IMPERII ARCHITHESAURARIUS ET ELECTOR "George III by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, of Brunswick and Lüneburg Duke, of the Holy Roman Empire Archtreasurer and Elector."
GEORGIUS III DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR "George III, by the Grace of God, of the Britains King, Defender of the Faith." By the Acts of Union 1800, Ireland was united with Great Britain into a single kingdom, which is represented on the coinage by the Latin genitive plural Britanniarum "of the Britains" (often abbreviated BRITT), signifying "the United Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland". At the same time, the United Kingdom abandoned the traditional claim to the throne of France, which had become a Republic, and the other titles were dropped from the coinage.
GEORGIUS IIII (IV) DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR "George IV, by the Grace of God, of the Britains King, Defender of the Faith." The Roman numeral "4" is represented by both IIII and IV in different issues.
GULIELMUS IIII DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR "William IV, by the Grace of God, of the Britains King, Defender of the Faith."
VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REGINA FIDEI DEFENSATRIX "Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the Britains Queen, Defender of the Faith."
VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM REGINA FIDEI DEFENSATRIX INDIAE IMPERATRIX "Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the Britains Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India." Queen Victoria was granted the title "Empress of India" in 1876.
EDWARDUS VII DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR INDIAE IMPERATOR "Edward VII, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India." Edward VII's coins added OMNIUM "all" after "Britains" to imply a rule over the British overseas colonies as well as the United Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
GEORGIUS V DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR INDIAE IMPERATOR "George V, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India."
GEORGIUS VI DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR INDIAE IMPERATOR "George VI, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India."

text:
GEORGIUS VI DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REX FIDEI DEFENSOR "George VI, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains King, Defender of the Faith." The title "Emperor of India" was relinquished in 1948, after the independence of India and Pakistan.
ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA BRITANNIARUM OMNIUM REGINA FIDEI DEFENSATRIX "Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of all the Britains Queen, Defender of the Faith."
ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FIDEI DEFENSATRIX "Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith." The "of all the Britains" was dropped from the coinage in 1954, and current coins do not name any realm.

text: Mottos[edit]

text: In addition to the title, a Latin or French motto might be included, generally on the reverse side of the coin. These varied between denominations and issues; some were personal to the monarch, others were more general. Some of the mottos were:

text:
POSUI DEUM ADIUTOREM MEUM "I have made God my helper". Coins of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I. Possibly refers to Psalm 52:7, Ecce homo qui non posuit Deum adjutorem suum "Behold the man who did not make God his helper".
RUTILANS ROSA SINE SPINA "A dazzling rose without a thorn". Coins of Henry VIII and Edward VI. Initially on the unsuccessful and very rare Crown of the Rose of Henry VIII and continued on subsequent small gold coinage into the reign of Edward VI.
POSUIMUS DEUM ADIUTOREM NOSTRUM "We have made God our helper". Coins of Philip and Mary. The same as above, but with a plural subject.
FACIAM EOS IN GENTEM UNAM "I shall make them into one nation". Coins of James I, signifying his desire to unite the English and Scottish nations. Refers to Ezekiel 37:2 in the Vulgate Bible.
CHRISTO AUSPICE REGNO "I reign with Christ as my protector". Coins of Charles I.
EXURGAT DEUS DISSIPENTUR INIMICI "May God rise up, may [his] enemies be scattered". Coins of Charles I, during the Civil War. Refers to Psalm 67:1 in the Vulgate Bible (Psalm 68 in English Bible numbering).
PAX QUAERITUR BELLO "Peace is sought by war". Coins of the Protectorate; personal motto of Oliver Cromwell.
BRITANNIA "Britain". Reign of Charles II to George III. Found on pennies and smaller denominations.
HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE. "Shamed be he who thinks ill of it." Sovereigns of George III. Motto of the Order of the Garter.
DECUS ET TUTAMEN. "A decoration and protection." Some pound coins of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and some crown coins including some of Victoria and George V. Refers to the inscribed edge as a protection against the clipping of precious metal, as well as being a complimentary reference to the monarch and the monarchy.


document_title: Atomic nucleus

question_text: who proposed that atomic nucleus is positively charged

root

text: Atomic nucleus

text: Introduction[edit]

text: History[edit]

text: The nucleus was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's efforts to test Thomson's "plum pudding model" of the atom.[8] The electron had already been discovered earlier by J.J. Thomson himself. Knowing that atoms are electrically neutral, Thomson postulated that there must be a positive charge as well. In his plum pudding model, Thomson suggested that an atom consisted of negative electrons randomly scattered within a sphere of positive charge. Ernest Rutherford later devised an experiment with his research partner Hans Geiger and with help of Ernest Marsden, that involved the deflection of alpha particles (helium nuclei) directed at a thin sheet of metal foil. He reasoned that if Thomson's model were correct, the positively charged alpha particles would easily pass through the foil with very little deviation in their paths, as the foil should act as electrically neutral if the negative and positive charges are so intimately mixed as to make it appear neutral. To his surprise, many of the particles were deflected at very large angles. Because the mass of an alpha particle is about 8000 times that of an electron, it became apparent that a very strong force must be present if it could deflect the massive and fast moving alpha particles. He realized that the plum pudding model could not be accurate and that the deflections of the alpha particles could only be explained if the positive and negative charges were separated from each other and that the mass of the atom was a concentrated point of positive charge. This justified the idea of a nuclear atom with a dense center of positive charge and mass.

tag: p

text: Etymology[edit]

text: The term nucleus is from the Latin word nucleus, a diminutive of nux ("nut"), meaning the kernel (i.e., the "small nut") inside a watery type of fruit (like a peach). In 1844, Michael Faraday used the term to refer to the "central point of an atom". The modern atomic meaning was proposed by Ernest Rutherford in 1912.[9] The adoption of the term "nucleus" to atomic theory, however, was not immediate. In 1916, for example, Gilbert N. Lewis stated, in his famous article The Atom and the Molecule, that "the atom is composed of the kernel and an outer atom or shell"[10]

text: Nuclear makeup[edit]

text: The nucleus of an atom consists of neutrons and protons, which in turn are the manifestation of more elementary particles, called quarks, that are held in association by the nuclear strong force in certain stable combinations of hadrons, called baryons. The nuclear strong force extends far enough from each baryon so as to bind the neutrons and protons together against the repulsive electrical force between the positively charged protons. The nuclear strong force has a very short range, and essentially drops to zero just beyond the edge of the nucleus. The collective action of the positively charged nucleus is to hold the electrically negative charged electrons in their orbits about the nucleus. The collection of negatively charged electrons orbiting the nucleus display an affinity for certain configurations and numbers of electrons that make their orbits stable. Which chemical element an atom represents is determined by the number of protons in the nucleus; the neutral atom will have an equal number of electrons orbiting that nucleus. Individual chemical elements can create more stable electron configurations by combining to share their electrons. It is that sharing of electrons to create stable electronic orbits about the nucleus that appears to us as the chemistry of our macro world.

text: Protons define the entire charge of a nucleus, and hence its chemical identity. Neutrons are electrically neutral, but contribute to the mass of a nucleus to nearly the same extent as the protons. Neutrons explain the phenomenon of isotopes – varieties of the same chemical element which differ only in their atomic mass, not their chemical action.

text: Composition and shape[edit]

text: Protons and neutrons are fermions, with different values of the strong isospin quantum number, so two protons and two neutrons can share the same space wave function since they are not identical quantum entities. They are sometimes viewed as two different quantum states of the same particle, the nucleon.[11][12] Two fermions, such as two protons, or two neutrons, or a proton + neutron (the deuteron) can exhibit bosonic behavior when they become loosely bound in pairs, which have integral spin.

text: In the rare case of a hypernucleus, a third baryon called a hyperon, containing one or more strange quarks and/or other unusual quark(s), can also share the wave function. However, this type of nucleus is extremely unstable and not found on Earth except in high energy physics experiments.

text: The neutron has a positively charged core of radius ≈ 0.3 fm surrounded by a compensating negative charge of radius between 0.3 fm and 2 fm. The proton has an approximately exponentially decaying positive charge distribution with a mean square radius of about 0.8 fm.[13]

text: Nuclei can be spherical, rugby ball-shaped (prolate deformation), discus-shaped (oblate deformation), triaxial (a combination of oblate and prolate deformation) or pear-shaped.[14][15]

text: Forces[edit]

text: Nuclei are bound together by the residual strong force (nuclear force). The residual strong force is a minor residuum of the strong interaction which binds quarks together to form protons and neutrons. This force is much weaker between neutrons and protons because it is mostly neutralized within them, in the same way that electromagnetic forces between neutral atoms (such as van der Waals forces that act between two inert gas atoms) are much weaker than the electromagnetic forces that hold the parts of the atoms together internally (for example, the forces that hold the electrons in an inert gas atom bound to its nucleus).

text: The nuclear force is highly attractive at the distance of typical nucleon separation, and this overwhelms the repulsion between protons due to the electromagnetic force, thus allowing nuclei to exist. However, the residual strong force has a limited range because it decays quickly with distance (see Yukawa potential); thus only nuclei smaller than a certain size can be completely stable. The largest known completely stable nucleus (i.e. stable to alpha, beta, and gamma decay) is lead-208 which contains a total of 208 nucleons (126 neutrons and 82 protons). Nuclei larger than this maximum are unstable and tend to be increasingly short-lived with larger numbers of nucleons. However, bismuth-209 is also stable to beta decay and has the longest half-life to alpha decay of any known isotope, estimated at a billion times longer than the age of the universe.

text: The residual strong force is effective over a very short range (usually only a few femtometres (fm); roughly one or two nucleon diameters) and causes an attraction between any pair of nucleons. For example, between protons and neutrons to form [NP] deuteron, and also between protons and protons, and neutrons and neutrons.

text: Halo nuclei and strong force range limits[edit]

text: The effective absolute limit of the range of the strong force is represented by halo nuclei such as lithium-11 or boron-14, in which dineutrons, or other collections of neutrons, orbit at distances of about 6986100000000000000♠10 fm (roughly similar to the 6985800000000000000♠8 fm radius of the nucleus of uranium-238). These nuclei are not maximally dense. Halo nuclei form at the extreme edges of the chart of the nuclides—the neutron drip line and proton drip line—and are all unstable with short half-lives, measured in milliseconds; for example, lithium-11 has a half-life of 6997880000000000000♠8.8 ms.

text: Halos in effect represent an excited state with nucleons in an outer quantum shell which has unfilled energy levels "below" it (both in terms of radius and energy). The halo may be made of either neutrons [NN, NNN] or protons [PP, PPP]. Nuclei which have a single neutron halo include 11Be and 19C. A two-neutron halo is exhibited by 6He, 11Li, 17B, 19B and 22C. Two-neutron halo nuclei break into three fragments, never two, and are called Borromean nuclei because of this behavior (referring to a system of three interlocked rings in which breaking any ring frees both of the others). 8He and 14Be both exhibit a four-neutron halo. Nuclei which have a proton halo include 8B and 26P. A two-proton halo is exhibited by 17Ne and 27S. Proton halos are expected to be more rare and unstable than the neutron examples, because of the repulsive electromagnetic forces of the excess proton(s).

text: Nuclear models[edit]

text: Although the standard model of physics is widely believed to completely describe the composition and behavior of the nucleus, generating predictions from theory is much more difficult than for most other areas of particle physics. This is due to two reasons:

text:
In principle, the physics within a nucleus can be derived entirely from quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In practice however, current computational and mathematical approaches for solving QCD in low-energy systems such as the nuclei are extremely limited. This is due to the phase transition that occurs between high-energy quark matter and low-energy hadronic matter, which renders perturbative techniques unusable, making it difficult to construct an accurate QCD-derived model of the forces between nucleons. Current approaches are limited to either phenomenological models such as the Argonne v18 potential or chiral effective field theory.[16]
Even if the nuclear force is well constrained, a significant amount of computational power is required to accurately compute the properties of nuclei ab initio. Developments in many-body theory have made this possible for many low mass and relatively stable nuclei, but further improvements in both computational power and mathematical approaches are required before heavy nuclei or highly unstable nuclei can be tackled.

text: Historically, experiments have been compared to relatively crude models that are necessarily imperfect. None of these models can completely explain experimental data on nuclear structure.[17]

text: The nuclear radius (R) is considered to be one of the basic quantities that any model must predict. For stable nuclei (not halo nuclei or other unstable distorted nuclei) the nuclear radius is roughly proportional to the cube root of the mass number (A) of the nucleus, and particularly in nuclei containing many nucleons, as they arrange in more spherical configurations:

text: The stable nucleus has approximately a constant density and therefore the nuclear radius R can be approximated by the following formula,

text: where A = Atomic mass number (the number of protons Z, plus the number of neutrons N) and r0 = 1.25 fm = 1.25 × 10−15 m. In this equation, the "constant" r0 varies by 0.2 fm, depending on the nucleus in question, but this is less than 20% change from a constant.[18]

text: In other words, packing protons and neutrons in the nucleus gives approximately the same total size result as packing hard spheres of a constant size (like marbles) into a tight spherical or almost spherical bag (some stable nuclei are not quite spherical, but are known to be prolate).[19]

text: Models of nuclear structure include :

text: Liquid drop model[edit]

text: Early models of the nucleus viewed the nucleus as a rotating liquid drop. In this model, the trade-off of long-range electromagnetic forces and relatively short-range nuclear forces, together cause behavior which resembled surface tension forces in liquid drops of different sizes. This formula is successful at explaining many important phenomena of nuclei, such as their changing amounts of binding energy as their size and composition changes (see semi-empirical mass formula), but it does not explain the special stability which occurs when nuclei have special "magic numbers" of protons or neutrons.

text: The terms in the semi-empirical mass formula, which can be used to approximate the binding energy of many nuclei, are considered as the sum of five types of energies (see below). Then the picture of a nucleus as a drop of incompressible liquid roughly accounts for the observed variation of binding energy of the nucleus:

text: Volume energy. When an assembly of nucleons of the same size is packed together into the smallest volume, each interior nucleon has a certain number of other nucleons in contact with it. So, this nuclear energy is proportional to the volume.

text: Surface energy. A nucleon at the surface of a nucleus interacts with fewer other nucleons than one in the interior of the nucleus and hence its binding energy is less. This surface energy term takes that into account and is therefore negative and is proportional to the surface area.

text: Coulomb Energy. The electric repulsion between each pair of protons in a nucleus contributes toward decreasing its binding energy.

text: Asymmetry energy (also called Pauli Energy). An energy associated with the Pauli exclusion principle. Were it not for the Coulomb energy, the most stable form of nuclear matter would have the same number of neutrons as protons, since unequal numbers of neutrons and protons imply filling higher energy levels for one type of particle, while leaving lower energy levels vacant for the other type.

text: Pairing energy. An energy which is a correction term that arises from the tendency of proton pairs and neutron pairs to occur. An even number of particles is more stable than an odd number.

text: Shell models and other quantum models[edit]

text: A number of models for the nucleus have also been proposed in which nucleons occupy orbitals, much like the atomic orbitals in atomic physics theory. These wave models imagine nucleons to be either sizeless point particles in potential wells, or else probability waves as in the "optical model", frictionlessly orbiting at high speed in potential wells.

text: In the above models, the nucleons may occupy orbitals in pairs, due to being fermions, which allows to explain even/odd Z and N effects well-known from experiments. The exact nature and capacity of nuclear shells differs from those of electrons in atomic orbitals, primarily because the potential well in which the nucleons move (especially in larger nuclei) is quite different from the central electromagnetic potential well which binds electrons in atoms. Some resemblance to atomic orbital models may be seen in a small atomic nucleus like that of helium-4, in which the two protons and two neutrons separately occupy 1s orbitals analogous to the 1s orbital for the two electrons in the helium atom, and achieve unusual stability for the same reason. Nuclei with 5 nucleons are all extremely unstable and short-lived, yet, helium-3, with 3 nucleons, is very stable even with lack of a closed 1s orbital shell. Another nucleus with 3 nucleons, the triton hydrogen-3 is unstable and will decay into helium-3 when isolated. Weak nuclear stability with 2 nucleons {NP} in the 1s orbital is found in the deuteron hydrogen-2, with only one nucleon in each of the proton and neutron potential wells. While each nucleon is a fermion, the {NP} deuteron is a boson and thus does not follow Pauli Exclusion for close packing within shells. Lithium-6 with 6 nucleons is highly stable without a closed second 1p shell orbital. For light nuclei with total nucleon numbers 1 to 6 only those with 5 do not show some evidence of stability. Observations of beta-stability of light nuclei outside closed shells indicate that nuclear stability is much more complex than simple closure of shell orbitals with magic numbers of protons and neutrons.

text: For larger nuclei, the shells occupied by nucleons begin to differ significantly from electron shells, but nevertheless, present nuclear theory does predict the magic numbers of filled nuclear shells for both protons and neutrons. The closure of the stable shells predicts unusually stable configurations, analogous to the noble group of nearly-inert gases in chemistry. An example is the stability of the closed shell of 50 protons, which allows tin to have 10 stable isotopes, more than any other element. Similarly, the distance from shell-closure explains the unusual instability of isotopes which have far from stable numbers of these particles, such as the radioactive elements 43 (technetium) and 61 (promethium), each of which is preceded and followed by 17 or more stable elements.

text: There are however problems with the shell model when an attempt is made to account for nuclear properties well away from closed shells. This has led to complex post hoc distortions of the shape of the potential well to fit experimental data, but the question remains whether these mathematical manipulations actually correspond to the spatial deformations in real nuclei. Problems with the shell model have led some to propose realistic two-body and three-body nuclear force effects involving nucleon clusters and then build the nucleus on this basis. Two such cluster models are the Close-Packed Spheron Model of Linus Pauling and the 2D Ising Model of MacGregor.[17]

text: Consistency between models[edit]

text: As with the case of superfluid liquid helium, atomic nuclei are an example of a state in which both (1) "ordinary" particle physical rules for volume and (2) non-intuitive quantum mechanical rules for a wave-like nature apply. In superfluid helium, the helium atoms have volume, and essentially "touch" each other, yet at the same time exhibit strange bulk properties, consistent with a Bose–Einstein condensation. The nucleons in atomic nuclei also exhibit a wave-like nature and lack standard fluid properties, such as friction. For nuclei made of hadrons which are fermions, Bose-Einstein condensation does not occur, yet nevertheless, many nuclear properties can only be explained similarly by a combination of properties of particles with volume, in addition to the frictionless motion characteristic of the wave-like behavior of objects trapped in Erwin Schrödinger's quantum orbitals.


document_title: The Polar Express (film)

question_text: who plays the train conductor in polar express

text: The Polar Express (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: On the night of Christmas Eve, a Grand Rapids, Michigan boy is growing bitterly skeptical of the existence of Santa Claus. As he struggles to sleep, he is roused by the arrival of a steam locomotive on the street outside his home, and dons his robe to investigate, tearing the robe's pocket as he retrieves it. Outside, the train's conductor (Tom Hanks) introduces the train as the Polar Express, bound for the North Pole. The boy initially declines to board, but jumps aboard the train as it pulls away.

text: In a passenger car, he befriends a spirited and amicable girl, and a condescending know-it-all. The train stops to pick up an impoverished child, Billy, who also declines to board; Billy changes his mind, and the boy applies the emergency brake to allow him to catch up to the train, much to the conductor's chagrin. As Billy sits alone in the train's rear dining car, hot chocolate is served in the passenger car, and the girl saves her hot chocolate for Billy. As she and the conductor cross to the dining car, the boy notices she left her ticket behind unpunched, but loses hold of the ticket between the cars when he attempts to return it. The ticket reenters the passenger car, but not before the conductor notices its absence and escorts the girl back to the rear car.

text: The know-it-all claims that the conductor will jettison the girl from the back of the train; the boy recovers the ticket and dashes to the dining car in search of the conductor, climbing onto the roof from the rear platform. He meets a hobo camping on the roof, who offers him coffee and discusses the existence of Santa Claus and belief in ghosts. The hobo skis with the boy along the tops of the cars towards the train's coal tender, where the hobo disappears. Here, the boy discovers that the girl has been made to supervise the locomotive while engineers Steamer and Smokey replace the train's headlight. The train is forced to stop while the conductor disperses a herd of caribou, whereupon the engineers return to the cabin and the boy, girl and conductor remain on the catwalk on the front of the locomotive. The throttle's split pin sheers off, causing the train to accelerate uncontrollably down a 179-degree grade and onto a frozen lake, where the engineers repair the throttle with a hairpin and drift the train to realign it with the tracks. The boy returns the girl's ticket, and as the three return to the passenger car, the boy is accosted by an Ebenezer Scrooge marionette (controlled by the hobo), taunting him and calling him a doubter.

text: The train finally arrives at the North Pole, where the conductor announces that one of the passengers will be chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas, from Santa himself. The girl discovers Billy still alone in the rear car, and she and the boy persuade him to come along; however, the boy accidentally unhitches the car, sending it back along the line to a railway turntable in Santa's workshop. The children sneak through an elf command center and a gift sorting office before accidentally being dumped into Santa's sack, where they discover that the know-it-all stowed away along with them, hoping to open his Christmas presents early. The elves rescue them as Santa arrives, and the boy grows frustrated, unable to see Santa through the crowd. A jingle bell flies loose from the galloping reindeers' reins; the boy initially cannot hear it ring, until he finds it within himself to believe. He returns the bell to Santa as he passes, and Santa selects the boy to receive the first gift of Christmas. The boy asks to keep the jingle bell, and places it in his robe pocket.

text: Four of the elves use a handcar to trundle the wayward passenger car back to the train as the children all board the Polar Express to return home, but the then boy discovers that the pocket was torn and that the bell had fallen out. He returns home and awakens Christmas morning to find a present containing the bell. He holds it to his ear and shakes it; his parents, not believing in Santa, lament how the bell is "broken".

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Tom Hanks as the Hero Boy (motion-capture only), the Hero Boy's father, the Conductor, the Hobo, Santa Claus, and the Narrator

Daryl Sabara as the Hero Boy (voice)
Josh Hutcherson as the Hero Boy (additional motion-capture)

Leslie Zemeckis as Sister Sarah (motion-capture only) and the Hero Boy's mother

Isabella Peregrina as Sister Sarah (voice)
Ashly Holloway as Sister Sarah (additional motion-capture)

Eddie Deezen as Know-It-All

Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak as Know-It-All (additional motion-capture)

Nona Gaye as the Hero Girl

Chantel Valdivieso as the Hero Girl (additional motion-capture)
Meagan Moore as the Hero Girl (singing voice)
Tinashe as the Hero Girl (motion-capture modeling)

Peter Scolari as Billy the Lonely Boy (motion-capture only)

Hayden McFarland as Billy the Lonely Boy (additional motion-capture)
Jimmy Bennett as Billy the Lonely Boy (voice)
Matthew Hall as Billy the Lonely Boy (singing voice)

Dylan Cash as Boy on Train (voice)
Brendan King and Andy Pellick as the Pastry Chefs
Josh Eli, Rolandas Hendricks, Jon Scott, Sean Scott, Mark Mendonca, Mark Goodman, Gregory Gast, and Gordon Hart as the Waiters
Andre Sogliuzzo as Smokey and Steamer (voice)

Michael Jeter as Smokey and Steamer (motion-capture only)

Chris Coppola as Gus the Toothless Boy and an Elf

Connor Matheus as the Toothless Boy (additional motion-capture)

Julene Renee as the Red Head Girl and an Elf
Phil Fondacaro, Debbie Lee Carrington, Mark Povinelli, and Ed Gale as Elves
Charles Fleischer as the Elf General
Steven Tyler as the Elf Lieutenant and the Elf Singer
Dante Pastula as the Little Boy
Eric Newton, Aidan O'Shea, Aaron Hendry, Kevin C. Carr, Bee Jay Joyer, Jena Carpenter, Karine Mauffrey, Beth Carpenter, Bill Forchion, Devin Henderson, and Sagiv Ben-Binyamin as Acrobatic Elves
Evan Sabara as a Young Boy (additional motion-capture)

text: Production[edit]

text: Architecture[edit]

text: The buildings at the North Pole refer to a number of buildings related to American railroading history. The buildings in the square at the city's center are loosely based on the Pullman Factory in Chicago's Pullman neighborhood.[5]

text: Polar Express Locomotive[edit]

text: The locomotive featured in the film is an American 2-8-4 Berkshire type steam locomotive, with a cowcatcher, modeled after the Pere Marquette 1225, which had spent many years on static display near Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan on the campus of Michigan State University, where Chris Van Allsburg recalled playing on the engine when attending football games as a child.[6]

text: In July 2002, Warner Bros. approached the engine's owner, the Steam Railroading Institute, to study the engine.[7] The engine in the film is modeled from the PM #1225's drawings and the sounds from recordings made of the 1225 operating under steam.[8] The whistle, however, was taken from Sierra Railway #3.

text: IMAX 3D version[edit]

text: In addition to standard theatrical 35mm format, a 3-D version for IMAX was also released, generated from the same 3-D digital models used for the standard version.[9]

text: Home media release[edit]

text: The film was released on DVD as separated widescreen and full-screen versions in single and two-disc special editions (with bonus features) and on VHS on November 22, 2005, one year after the film came out.[10] It was released on Blu-ray with bonus features and presented in the original widescreen aspect ratio on October 30, 2007.

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text:
Performer(s)
Title
Length

Tom Hanks
"The Polar Express"
3:25

Matthew Hall & Meagan Moore
"When Christmas Comes to Town"
4:07

Steven Tyler
"Rockin' on the Top of the World"
2:35

Josh Groban
"Believe"
4:18

Tom Hanks
"Hot Chocolate"
2:33

Alan Silvestri
"Spirit of the Season"
2:34

Frank Sinatra
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town"
2:35

Alan Silvestri
"Seeing Is Believing"
3:47

Bing Crosby
"White Christmas"
3:05

The Andrews Sisters
"Winter Wonderland"
2:43

Perry Como &The Fontane Sisters
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"
2:40

Kate Smith
"Silver Bells"
2:39

Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
"Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)"
3:04

Alan Silvestri
"Suite from the Polar Express"
6:02

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 55% based on 202 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though the movie is visually stunning overall, the animation for the human characters isn't lifelike enough, and the story is padded."[12] Despite the polarized reception from critics, The Polar Express has been popular among audiences. The Independent reported in 2011 that the film "is now seen by many as a classic".[13] CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.[14]

text: Roger Ebert gave the film his highest rating of four stars, saying, "There's a deeper, shivery tone, instead of the mindless jolliness of the usual Christmas movie." And "It has a haunting, magical quality ..." Acknowledging comments by other reviewers, Ebert said, "It's a little creepy. Not creepy in an unpleasant way, but in that sneaky, teasing way that lets you know eerie things could happen."[15] Richard Roeper gave a glowing review to the film as well, saying that it "remains true to the book, right down to the bittersweet final image."[this quote needs a citation] James Berardinelli gave it a 3.5/4, stating that it is "a delightful tale guaranteed to enthrall viewers of all ages", and ranked it as the 10th best film of 2004.[16]

text: The character design and animation were criticized for dipping into the uncanny valley.[17] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film a 1 out of 4 stars, and called it "a failed and lifeless experiment in which everything goes wrong".[18] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said, "I could probably have tolerated the incessant jitteriness of The Polar Express if the look of it didn't give me the creeps."[19] Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star stated, "If I were a child, I'd have nightmares. Come to think of it, I did anyway."[20] Paul Clinton from CNN called it "at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit horrifying".[21]

text: Box office[edit]

text: The film opened at #2 and earned $23,323,463 from approximately 7,000 screens at 3,650 theaters, for a per-theater average of $6,390 and a per-screen average of $3,332 in its opening weekend. It also brought in a total of $30,629,146 since its Wednesday launch. The weekend total also included $2,100,000 from 59 IMAX theaters, for an IMAX theater average of $35,593, and had a $3,000,000 take since Wednesday. In its second weekend, it grossed another $15,668,101, averaging $4,293 from 3,650 venues and boosting the 12-day cumulative to $51,463,282 and over Thanksgiving weekend made another $19,389,927, averaging $5,312 from 3,650 venues and raising the 19-day cumulative to $81,479,861.[citation needed] The film has made $185,618,322 domestically (including IMAX re-releases), and $124,140,582 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $309,758,904.[2]

text: The film had its network TV premiere on ABC, December 1, 2006. The airing brought in 13.2 million viewers, winning its timeslot and ranking 20th in the Nielsen ratings that week, according to TVTango.com.

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text: The film was nominated for three Academy Awards:

text:
Best Sound Editing (Randy Thom and Dennis Leonard)
Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands and William B. Kaplan)
Best Original Song for "Believe."[22]

text: The film was nominated at the 3rd Visual Effects Society Awards in the category of "Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture."[23]

text: In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated The Polar Express for its Top 10 Animated Films list.[24]

text: The "Polar Express Experience"[edit]

text: In November 2007, SeaWorld Orlando debuted the Polar Express Experience, a Motion Simulator ride based on the film. The attraction is a temporary replacement for the Wild Arctic attraction. The building housing the attraction was also temporarily re-themed to a railroad station and ride vehicles painted to resemble Polar Express passenger cars. The plot for the ride revolves around a trip to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Guests feel the motion of the locomotive as well as the swinging of the train on ice and feeling of ice crumbling beneath them. The attraction was available until January 1, 2008,[25] and is now open annually during the Christmas season.

text: The 4D film, distributed by SimEx-Iwerks, has been shown at other amusement parks around the world including Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Dollywood (during the annual Smoky Mountain Christmas event), Vancouver Aquarium (2009 — 2010),[26] and Warner Bros. Movie World (during the White Christmas events in 2010 and 2011).

text: Video game[edit]

text: A video game based on the film was released on November 26, 2004 for GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2 and Windows, developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment and published by THQ.[27][28] The plot of the game is more different than the film version. Within this time, the Ebenezer Scrooge puppet who is set as the main antagonist of the game, attempts to prevent the children from believing in Santa Claus by stealing their tickets and trying to stop the children for reaching the North Pole.[29][30]


document_title: Every Child Matters

question_text: when did every child matters come into place

text: Every Child Matters

text: Every Child Matters (ECM) is a UK government initiative for England and Wales, that was launched in 2003, at least partly in response to the death of Victoria Climbié. It is one of the most important policy initiative which has been introduced and development programmes in relation to children and children's services of the last decade, and has been described as a "sea change" to the children and families agenda.[1] It has been the title of three government papers, leading to the Children Act 2004. Every Child Matters covers children and young adults up to the age of 19, or 24 for those with disabilities.

text: Its main aims are for every child, whatever their background or circumstances, to have the support they need to:

text:
stay safe
be healthy
enjoy and achieve
make a positive contribution
achieve economic well-being

text: Each of these themes has a detailed framework attached which is required for multi-agency partnerships to work together in order to achieve. The agencies in partnership may include children's centres, early years, schools, children's social work services, primary and secondary health services, playwork, and Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS). In the past it has been argued that children and families have received poorer services because of the failure of professionals to understand each other's roles or to work together effectively in a multi-disciplinary manner. ECM seeks to change this, stressing that it is important that all professionals working with children are aware of the contribution that could be made by their own and each other's service and to plan and deliver their work with children and young people accordingly.[2]

text: A helpful acronym to remember the 5 parts is SHEEP - Every child shall be: Safe, Healthy, Enjoy/Achieve, Economic, Positive contribution.

text: It is the central goal of Every Child Matters to ensure every pupil is given the chance to be able to work towards the goals referenced within it. Most of the legislation passed and guidance applies to England and Wales, and all maintained schools have implemented the policy; it has also been influential in the rest of the UK and in some independent schools. The similar model Getting it Right for Every Child - GIRFEC is the equivalent approach in Scotland.

text: Since the formation of the Cameron Ministry in 2010 there has been some movement away from the terminology, and the funding for, Every Child Matters.[3] Instead, the government is now returning child health checks to health visitors in their more traditional setting - the child's home - and subsidising a parent's independent choice of child care, via tax credits,[4] rather than a centrally funded service.

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Social policy in the noughties: 10 years of change and controversy, The Guardian
Jump up ^ Barker, Richard (ed) (2009) "Making Sense of Every Child Matters -- Multi-professional practice guidance" Policy Press
Jump up ^ Every Child Matter and the Coalition Government
Jump up ^ Childcare Tax Credit

tag: ol

text: Further reading[edit]

text:
Cheminais, R (2009) Effective Multi-Agency Partnerships: Putting Every Child Matters into Practice. ISBN 978-1-00-001987-2
Cheminais, R (2008) How to Achieve the Every Child Matters Standards: A Practical Guide. ISBN 978-1-4129-4816-6 http://www.ecm-solutions.org.uk/achieve-ecm-standards.html