Description
THE BANKNOTE
The pound is the emergency wartime £1 banknote introduced in Britain in 1940, the very same year as Dunkirk.
This is the ONLY British £1 note in the distinctive blue and pink colour scheme. Why? Until 1940 the British pound note had been a green coloured banknote, but the British found out the Germans were forging a huge quantity of them which they planned to drop from planes over Britain, meaning confidence in the currency would evaporate and cause chaos. Within just a few weeks of finding out about this, the Bank of England removed all the old green notes from circulation and replaced them with these distinctive blue and pink ones making the German forgeries USELESS!
The note in this set is in near mint condition.
THE COINS
The two heritage coins in this set are both of 1940, the very same year as Dunkirk! The coins are a silver shilling and bronze penny. When you add these to the £1 note above it means this set includes a ‘pound shilling and pence’ which are all originals of the era of Dunkirk.
This is the money that would have been used by those 338,000 servicemen rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk, and by the captains and crew of all the Royal navy ships and the private vessels that sailed across the Channel and helped create the ‘miracle of Dunkirk’.
The coins are all selected circulated coins.
THE GOLD SOVEREIGN
In the 65th Anniversary year (2005) Britain released a gold sovereign with a one-year-only design of St George and the dragon. This motif is often used to celebrate the triumph of good over evil – a fitting design therefore to use to mark an important anniversary of Dunkirk. Britain did not issue any other coins in that year for the anniversary of Dunkirk so this one-year-only sovereign design may have been a ‘silent commemoration’ of Dunkirk.
This set includes one of these sovereigns in PROOF quality
LIMITATION
This edition is limited to just 80 sets and each one has a numbered plaque and matching numbered certificate of authenticity from Hattons of London.
