LECTURE NOTES
(I start off with these, it may not reflect the actual content of the show).
- There have been 7 £2.00 coins between 1986 and 1996.
- It is not, however the first bimetallic coin which was the bimetallic tin farthing in 1692.
- £2 coin outer ring:
- Colour: Yellow nickel
- Composition: 76% copper, 20% zinc, 4% nickel
- Inner disc:
- Colour: Steel-coloured cupro-nickel
- Composition: 75% copper, 25% nickel
- Weight: 12g; 28.4mm diameter
- Edge stamped before centre is attached so text may appear either way up
- If you place the Canadian bimetallic coin in the freezer the centre will pop out, not so with the British £2.00
- Design trialed in '94 but never released as legal tender - some have appeared in display sets though.
- 97 saw the release of Raphael Maklouf's coin but it was delayed due to technical difficulties and released simultaneously with Ian Rank-Broadley's.
- On regular issue coins the design represents technical development and features 19 cogs - this odd number of cogs means the machine would only function on a mobius strip (discovered by August Mobius 1858)
- Between 1997-2008 353,145,250 £2 coins were made. Average 29 million/year
- 19 special designs issued, most notably:
- Discovery of DNA
- The Gunpowder Plot
- Birth of Robert Burns
- Previous unimetallic coins have been made for special occasions which have the same metallic composition as a £1.00 coin but twice the metal. Designs include:
- The end of World War 2
- Tercentenary of the Scottish Claim of Right
- This year's coin celebrates 150 years of nursing and the death of Florence Nightingale.
