About/Coin constellation/History contest/Coin Constellation-2012/Contest coins/Coin "The King James Bible 400th Anniversary"
Coin "The King James Bible 400th Anniversary"
| Name | The King James Bible 400th Anniversary |
| Presented by | The Royal Mint |
| Nominal value | 2 Pounds |
| Metal | Gold 916,7° |
| Mintage | 1000 |
| Production quality | Proof, inner: yellow gold, outer: red gold |
| Description of obverse and reverse | The very spirit of the King James Bible is brilliantly captured on the £2 coin celebrating its 400th anniversary. Cleverly reminding us that printing concerns were at the heart of the matter in 1611, the commemorative reverse design displays the first words from the book of John – In the beginning was the Word – in the reversed raised text of the printing block on the left and the recessed text of the printed word on the right. The words chosen for the edge inscription – THE AUTHORISED VERSION – are entirely appropriate and complete the story. The gold Proof £2 coin certainly does the design justice. Its superb Proof quality ensures the script, faithful to the original print of 1611, stands out in perfect relief while the red and yellow gold combine to give the coin a magnificent lustre. |
| A brief annotation | Religious tension was high in 1604 when King James I convened the Hampton Court Conference. The conference was to settle religious differences between the Bishops and the Puritans, but the King also welcomed the opportunity to commission a new translation of the Bible to replace the Geneva Bible then in use and which, in its marginal notes, challenged the King’s divine right as monarch. The new Bible was first published in 1611 and soon became the standard text in English churches. It exerted an enormous influence on the English language and its legacy, not just the influence on later writers, but on the fabric of language itself is manifest throughout the English-speaking world. It has a richness of poetic language on every page; scholars praise it for its majestic style and poetic rhythms and, still ‘quicke and powerfull’ (Heb.4.12), the King James Version remains one of the best loved Bible translations. |
| Designer | Obverse designer: Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS; Reverse designer: Paul Stafford and Benjamin Wright |
| Producer | The Royal Mint |
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