Description

The Royal Mint, in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, has launched a commemorative coin collection celebrating fossil hunter and pioneering palaeontologist Mary Anning (1799–1847).

This is the second coin collection that features prehistoric creatures and is entitled “Tales of the Earth.” Featuring a design by palaeo-artist Robert Nicholls who specialises in producing anatomically accurate reconstructions of natural history specimens, this 50p coin was designed with the expert guidance of the Earth Sciences Department of the Natural History Museum. Available as a gold and silver Proof, colour-printed silver Proof, colour-printed Brilliant Uncirculated exclusive to The Royal Mint and standard Brilliant Uncirculated edition, it’s a fitting tribute to one of Britain’s greatest fossil hunters, Mary Anning (1799–1847) who became known around the world for finds she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset in Southwest England. Anning's findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton; the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and fish fossils.

After her death in 1847, Anning's unusual life story attracted increasing interest. Charles Dickens wrote an article about Anning's life in February 1865 in his literary magazine All the Year Round. In 2010 the Royal Society included Anning in a list of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science.