I’ve been praising the bold and modern design of the new sterling coinage featuring fragments of the Royal Standard. Quite a few people have commented that they ‘look forrin’ and I see their point. But I liked them.
That was until Josh Russell pointed out an obvious flaw to me over coffee (and he’s thoughtfully pointed it out to everyone on his blog, phew): the tail sides have no numerals, just words. How are people who don’t read english, or don’t read at all, going to know which is which when they first encounter these coins?
Euro coins have numerals but USD coinage doesn’t. But, and I agree with Josh here, how did this happen with our illustrious currency? I have been keeping an eye out and rather than it seeming like a new thing, I think there may be a trend. Many old pound coins and all two pound coins (as far as I’ve seen) don’t have numbers and plenty of commem fifty pence pieces (such as the ones celebrating the Victoria Cross and scouting movement) are numeral-less too. This is a bad thing.
(Check out the coins at the Royal Mint.)