United Kingdom (Great Britain) Elizabeth II 1 Pound

History

1 Pound 2010, KM# 1159, United Kingdom (Great Britain), Elizabeth II, Capital Сities of the United Kingdom, Belfast, Northern Ireland

1 Pound 2010, KM# 1159, United Kingdom (Great Britain), Elizabeth II, Capital Сities of the United Kingdom, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Edge

Obverse. Photo © Ma collection de monnaies

Description

In 2010 and 2011 the capital cities of Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland lent their coats of arms to provide reverse designs for round pounds.

Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, the second largest on the island of Ireland. Belfast was granted city status in 1888. Belfast was a centre of the Irish linen, tobacco-processing, rope-making and shipbuilding industries: in the early 20th century, Harland and Wolff, which built the RMS Titanic, was the world's biggest and most productive shipyard. Belfast played a key role in the Industrial Revolution, and was a global industrial centre until the latter half of the 20th century. It has sustained a major aerospace and missiles industry since the mid 1930s. Industrialisation and the inward migration it brought made Belfast Ireland's biggest city at the beginning of the 20th century.
Today, Belfast remains a centre for industry, as well as the arts, higher education, business, and law, and is the economic engine of Northern Ireland.

The name Belfast derives from the Gaelic ‘Beal Feirste’, which loosely translates as ‘mouth of the sandbars’, referring to its position on the old River Farset.

Obverse	Crown, jewelry Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara Person (king, queen, tsar etc.) Elizabeth II Fourth crowned portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II facing right, wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara. The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara was a wedding present in 1947 from her grandmother, Queen Mary, who received it as a gift from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland in 1893 on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of York, later George V. Made by E. Wolfe & Co., it was purchased from Garrard & Co. by a committee organised by Lady Eve Greville. In 1914, Mary adapted the tiara to take 13 diamonds in place of the large oriental pearls surmounting the tiara. At first, Elizabeth wore the tiara without its base and pearls but the base was reattached in 1969. The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara is one of Elizabeth's most recognisable pieces of jewellery due to its widespread use on British banknotes and coinage. ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FIDEI DEFENSATRIX means Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen and Defender of the Faith. Engraver: Ian Rank-Broadley ELIZABETH·II·D·G REG·F·D·2010 IRB
Reverse	Coat of arms UK capital cities Music (instrument, notes etc.) Bell Navy (ship, submarine etc.) Ship The Belfast coat of arms features a top a bell, a geometric design, below a sailing ship. The three smaller badges represent the other cities in the series. The current Belfast coat of arms dates from 30 June 1890 when the Ulster King of Arms made a Grant of Arms to the new city of Belfast. The precise origins and meanings of the symbols contained on the Coat of Arms are unknown. But images such as the bell, the ship and the chained wolf were all used by 17th-century Belfast merchants on their signs and coinage. Engraver: Stuart Devlin ONE BELFAST POUND
Edge	Reeded and lettered The motto 'What shall we give in return for so much' comes from Psalm CXVI (116), verse 12 of the Bible. PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS