Proclamations
BY THE QUEEN A PROCLAMATION DETERMINING THE SPECIFICATIONS AND DESIGNS FOR FIVE-POUND COINS COMMEMORATING THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR ELIZABETH R.
Whereas under section 3(1)(a), (b), (c), (cc), (cd), (d) and (dd) of the Coinage Act 1971 We have power, with the advice of Our Privy Council, by Proclamation to determine the denomination, the design and dimensions of coins to be made at Our Mint, to determine the weight and composition of coins other than gold coins or coins of silver of Our Maundy money and the remedy to be allowed in making such coins and to determine the percentage of impurities which such coins may contain:
And Whereas under section 3(1)(f) and (ff) of the Coinage Act 1971 We have power, with the advice of Our Privy Council, by Proclamation to direct that coins made at Our Mint other than gold, silver, cupro-nickel and bronze coins shall be current and that any coin shall be legal tender for the payment of any amount:
And Whereas it appears to Us desirable to order that, to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the First World War, there should be made at Our Mint coins of the denomination of five pounds in gold and silver:
We, therefore, in pursuance of the said section 3(1)(a), (b), (c), (cc), (cd), (d), (dd), (f) and (ff), and of all other powers enabling Us in that behalf, do hereby, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, proclaim, direct and ordain as follows:
GOLD COIN
1. A new coin of gold of the denomination of five pounds shall be made, being a coin of a standard diameter of 38.608 millimetres, and being circular in shape.
SILVER COIN
2. (1) A new coin of silver of the denomination of five pounds shall be made, being a coin of a standard weight of 28.276 grammes, a standard diameter of 38.608 millimetres, a standard composition of 925 parts per thousand fine silver, and being circular in shape.
(2) In the making of the said silver coin a remedy (that is, a variation from the standard weight, composition or dimensions specified above) shall be allowed of an amount not exceeding the following, that is to say:
(a) a variation from the said standard weight of an amount per coin of 0.13 grammes;
(b) a variation from the said standard composition of five parts per thousand fine silver; and
(c) a variation from the said standard diameter of 0.125 millimetres per coin.
(3) The variation from the standard weight will be measured as the average of a sample of not more than one kilogram of the coin.
(4) The said silver coin shall be legal tender for the payment of any amount in any part of Our United Kingdom.
DESIGNS OF THE COINS
3. The designs of the said coins shall be as follows:
‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G · REG · F · D FIVE POUNDS · 2014”, and for the reverse either:
(a) British troops waving to crowds as they embark on a ship with the inscription ‘· 1914 THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1918 · BEF’ around the coin. The said coin will have a plain edge and in incuse letters the inscription ‘SALUTE THE OLD CONTEMPTIBLES’;
(b) a depiction of three Howitzers with the inscription ‘1914 THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1918’. The said coin will have a plain edge and in incuse letters the inscription ‘A NEW AND FURIOUS BOMBARDMENT’;
(c) an effigy of Walter Tull in uniform with soldiers walking out over no man’s land and the inscription ‘1914 THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1918’ and ‘WALTER TULL’ around the coin; separated by poppy flowers attached with barbed wire. The said coin will have a plain edge and in incuse letters the inscription ‘A HERO ON AND OFF ·THE FIELD’;
(d) a naval gun being loaded on board the deck of a battleship with the inscription ‘ · 1914 THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1918 · NAVY’. The said coin will have a plain edge and in incuse letters the inscription ‘THE KING’S SHIPS WERE AT SEA’;
(e) a depiction of a man putting up propaganda posters onto a brick wall with the inscription ‘1914 THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1918’. The said coin will have a plain edge and in incuse letters the inscription ‘FOLLOW ME! YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU’, or;
(f) a depiction of a woman working the fields with a plough with the inscription ‘· 1914 THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1918 · HOMEFRONT’. The said coin will have a plain edge and in incuse letters the inscription ‘SPEED THE PLOUGH AND THE WOMAN WHO DRIVES IT’’.
4. This Proclamation shall come into force on the twenty-eighth day of May Two thousand and fourteen.
Given at Our Court at Buckingham Palace, this twenty-seventh day of May in the year of Our Lord Two thousand and fourteen and in the sixty-third year of Our Reign.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN