£2 Of Change Trivia Quiz

Answer: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

The celebratory coin showed a rugby ball and a goalpost. This coin is now one of the rarest £2 issues, with one selling to a coin collector in Bristol for £675 in 2018. That's a fairly good return I think.

The 1999 Rugby World Cup was won by Australia, who beat France in the final by a score of 35-12. England, Wales and Scotland all were eliminated in the quarter finals.

Answer: Mary Rose

The Mary Rose coin depicts the famous ship sailing from left to right, and there were many of these coins released into general circulation with the edge inscription stamped upside down, which are now prized by collectors.

The Mary Rose was a part of the navy of King Henry VIII and served in three wars against France between 1512 and 1545 before sinking in the Solent in 1545. She was raised from the depths in 1982, and is on public display in Portsmouth.

Answer: Jane Austen

This coin was minted to observe the 200th anniversary of the death of Austen and featured her silhouette along with her signature.

Austen had four books published during her lifetime, but "Northanger Abbey" wasn't one of them. This was published posthumously, as was "Persuasion" (1818). The four that she saw published were, "Sense and Sensibility" (1811), "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), "Mansfield Park" (1814) and "Emma" (1816).

Answer: The Abolition Of Slavery

This coin celebrated the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and had an edge inscription reading "Am I Not A Man And A Brother". The design was the date, 1807 reading horizontally, with the zero forming a vertical chain with a broken link.

Although this coin celebrates the Slave Trade Act of 1807, that act merely sought to dissuade people from owning slaves. Slavery became officially illegal in the British Empire in 1833, with the Slavery Abolition Act.

Answer: Shipping

With a lighthouse lamp shining out from the coin and an edge inscription of "Serving The Mariner", this coin was obviously dedicated to shipping and the people that choose the ocean life.

Trinity House is the authority over lighthouses in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, as well as providing and maintaining light-vessels and buoys in those countries' waters. In addition to these duties, it also acts as a charity, providing funding for retired seamen and cadet training.

Answer: William Shakespeare

The three Shakespeare coins managed to accurately reflect their topics, with the comedy coin depicting a jester's hat and stick with an edge inscription of, "All the Worlds a Stage", while the history coin showed a crown with a dagger through it and had an edge inscription reading, "The Hollow Crown".
A skull with a rose was used to illustrate the tragedy coin along with an edge inscription taken from "Hamlet" (1600) of "What a piece of work is a man".

Shakespeare is probably the world's best-known playwright, writing over 35 plays, the majority of which are still performed today all around the world, all before his death in 1616 aged just 52.

Answer: Frankenstein

Not only did the coin display the famous quote from Mary Shelley's novel but it also had the word "Frankenstein" written prominently across its face in suitably Gothic lettering, and the book's subtitle, "The Modern Prometheus" written below it.

Shelley is best known for "Frankenstein" (1818), but also wrote several other novels including "Mathilda" (written in 1819, first published in 1959) about an incestuous family, and "The Last Man", an 1826 science fiction novel.

Answer: Royal Navy

The Royal Navy coin was issued in 2015, followed by the Army in 2016 and the Royal Air Force in 2018, their centenary year. The Royal Navy coin featured a battleship in profile while the Army coin displayed three First World War soldiers and had an edge inscription of "For King and Country".

As 2018 was the centenary year of the Royal Air Force, there was a special five-coin set issued, displaying RAF icons throughout the years: a Spitfire plane, a F-35 Lightning II plane, the famous Vulcan plane, a Sea King helicopter and the RAF badge. All had, as an edge inscription, the RAF Latin motto of "Per ardua ad astra", meaning "Through adversity to the stars".

Answer: Florence Nightingale

The coin's depiction of the light rays could illustrate none other than the "lady of the lamp", Florence Nightingale and it was issued to commemorate the centenary of her death. The coin also featured an edge inscription reading, "150 Years of Nursing".

Nightingale became known for her tending of troops during the Crimean War of 1853-1856 and is respected as the founder of modern nursing. British Army hospitals were extremely unsanitary places at the time and Nightingale introduced many new practices as well as items such as surgical caps. She was also a meticulous record keeper and the data she collected on reduced mortality rates due to her changes meant that these methods were implemented in all British military hospitals.

Answer: Tercentenary of the Act of Union between England and Scotland

Holton said of her design that she wished to steer clear of the political aspect of the Act as she wanted the coin to avoid any controversy, so she went for a design featuring the flowers of each country, a rose and a thistle, along with a portcullis as a recognised symbol of government. She incorporated these into a jigsaw design, illustrating the union of the two countries.

Up to 2019, the most prolific £2 coin designer was John Bergdahl, who designed seven coins between 2011 and 2016, including those featuring the Mary Rose, the 800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta and all three Shakespeare coins.