Obverse. Photo © The London Coin Company
  • 5 Pounds 2010, Sp# LO54, United Kingdom (Great Britain), Elizabeth II, London 2012 Summer Olympics: Celebration of Britain, Spirit - Olaudah Equiano
  • 5 Pounds 2010, Sp# LO54, United Kingdom (Great Britain), Elizabeth II, London 2012 Summer Olympics: Celebration of Britain, Spirit - Olaudah Equiano
Description

As Britain gears up for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Royal Mint is celebrating achievements from British heritage with the release of 18 coins. The collection is divided into three series - The Mind Series, The Body Series and The Spirit Series. Each of the £5 coins features the London 2012 logo in colour on the reverse. Equiano is the final coin in a series.

The 2012 Summer Olympics, formally the Games of the XXX Olympiad and commonly known as London 2012, took place in London and to a lesser extent across the United Kingdom from 25 July to 12 August 2012. During the Games, Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, winning his 22nd medal. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Brunei entered female athletes for the first time, so that every currently eligible country has sent a female competitor to at least one Olympic Games. Women's boxing was included for the first time, thus the Games became the first at which every sport had female competitors. The final medal tally was led by the United States, followed by China and host Great Britain.

Obverse

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 FIVE POUNDS·2010
IRB

Reverse

Depicts the bust of left holding a book nineteenth-century anti-slavery campaigner Olaudau Equiano accompanied by the blue 2012 London Olympic logo and a quotation from William Shakespeare, "To thine own self be true".

Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 1797), known in his lifetime as Gustavus Vassa, was a freed slave of Igbo extraction from the eastern part of present-day Nigeria, who supported the British movement to end the slave trade. His autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), which depicted the horrors of slavery, helped in the creation of the Slave Trade Act 1807 which ended the African slave trade for Britain and its colonies.

1823 is the year in which the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions was founded.

The London 2012 Summer Olympics logo is four abstract shapes placed in a quadrant formation spelling out "2012". The word "London" is written in the shape representing the "2", while the Olympic rings are placed in the shape representing the "0".

Engraver: Shane Greeves

To thine
own
self
london TM
be
true
Abolition
of
SLAVERY
BRITISH DOMINION
January the 24th, 1823.

Edge

5 Pounds (Crown)

4th portrait, Silver Proof
Sp# LO54
Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Non-circulating)
Material Silver
Fineness 0.925
Weight 28.28 g
Diameter 38.61 mm
Thickness 2.89 mm
Shape round
Alignment Medal
Mint
Royal Mint

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