How can the Government destroy a True Brit?
Daily Mail
www.dailymail.co.uk
28th January 2008
Ever since she appeared on a farthing in the reign of Charles II more than 300 years ago, the image of Britannia sitting on her rock wearing her Greek helmet and flowing classical robes, holding her trident with a lion at her feet has made a continuous appearance on British coins.

But now the Royal Mint has confirmed that, before he left the Treasury for Number 10, Gordon Brown personally approved a new set of coins from which she has been entirely removed.

How profoundly depressing. No other name is more redolent of our country. No symbol, other than the Union Flag, better sums up these islands. Yet we are told that under the most significant overhaul of coinage since decimalisation, she is to be replaced with a representation of modern Britain, whatever that may be.

Since Britannia has seen off all manner of changes and modern fads over her venerable lifetime - although never perhaps quite the deep loathing for this country's history that the current Labour Government exhibits - you would hope that she could have been allowed to stay with us.

She has been a small but charming and even romantic part of our way of life for so long that the banishment of her graceful female form seems to be a pointless and expensive act of vandalism, another small aspect of the brutalisation of today's Britain.

It seems not to matter that, through centuries of British coinage, she has been unfailingly adaptable for her various masters - she turned to face right instead of left for George IV's currency and even stood up for the florin coin of Edward VII.

Even though we have six denominations of coins, from the one penny to the 50 pence piece, it seems not one of them has a place for her in Gordon Brown's Britain.

While the Prime Minister wraps himself in the Union Flag, with proclamations of his love of country, he quietly ditches the very symbol that has represented Britain's past and present glory for longer than any other.

Because, although Britannia has been continuously on our coins since that first Britannia farthing was minted in 1672, she has personified the proud history of these islands since long before the invention of the Union Flag with which her shield is emblazoned.

She goes back nearly 2,000 years, to the days when she was believed to be a goddess of the group of islands off North-West Europe that the Romans conquered and called Britannia. As the personification of Britain during the Roman Empire, a shrine was erected to her at York during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, who visited Britain in 121AD.

There are several coin types from that period which feature a seated female, holding a spear with a spiked shield at her feet and the word "Britannia."

Some coins have her seated on a globe above waves, denoting Britain's geographical position at the far end of the known world. This manifestation of her remained legal tender in Britain until the end of the reign of Emperor Carausius in 297AD.

The model for the Britannia of today's currency was Frances Teresa Stuart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, a close friend of Charles II who Samuel Pepys believed to be "the finest sight to me that I ever did see in all my life, the greatest beauty I ever saw," a pretty impressive encomium from one who admired the female form as much as he.

Graceful, beautiful and romantic, she flirted with the King at court and it was he who suggested she pose for a figure of Britannia for his medal to commemorate a naval victory over the Dutch in 1664.

It was this medal that was chosen eight years later to grace the currency itself, and before long her image had taken on an independent life in the pockets of millions of Britons, where she has remained ever since. At the height of Empire, she was given Poseidon's trident to represent Britain's naval power.

We all know that Britannia no longer rules the waves as she did in the wonderful 1740 song Rule Britannia - not least because New Labour has wound down the Royal Navy to become little more than a coastal defence force. But does the Government really need to underline that fact by throwing her overboard?

After World War I, large bronze memorial plaques featuring a standing figure of Britannia, along with her lion, were given to the relatives of all those who were killed fighting for king and country, with the name of the dead person engraved upon it.

The words "He died for freedom and honour" were inscribed upon it, and have a nobility and beauty made all the more moving for what they represented: a nation's sense of gratitude.

The concept of Britannia was then far removed from the debased "Cool Britannia" of New Britain, a spurious invention of Downing Street spin doctors and the publicity machines of pop groups like Oasis, Blur and the Spice Girls.

Yet despite the cheap uses she has been put to recently, any image that appeared on every British penny from 1797 until 1970, and on the 50 pence coin since 1969, is worthy of defence.

By what right has Gordon Brown, who has famously not been elected leader of his own party let alone by the British people as prime minister, expunged this splendid lady from all our lives?

The Tories, who were notoriously responsible for not renovating the Royal Yacht Britannia for the Queen, ought now immediately to promise to restore the coinage Britannia for the rest of us. Eight vessels of the Royal Navy have been named after Britannia, as well as the Navy's officer training institution, the Britannia Royal Naval College. In a world of branding, hers is a powerful name used by charter airlines, building societies, steam locomotives and the like.

Yet a Government that claims it wants to promote Britishness, introduce a Britain Day and even get us to fly the Union Flag more often, has deliberately chosen to kill off a feminine, gentle, attractive symbol of our united country, that genuinely connects us with centuries of our past.

After starting to split up our nation through devolution, and signing a European Treaty that is a Euro-constitution in all but name, one might have thought that while we still actually retain our own currency we might have been permitted to retain our customary symbols upon it.

Symbols have meaning and Britannia represents far more than just a woman sitting on a rock with a laurel leaf in her hand. She connects us, physically through objects as everyday as the coins we use, to the days when we were a great nation.

Britannia reminds us of the best of Britain: she is gentle, generous, yet also strong. Foreigners have nothing to fear from Britannia, or the lion at her feet, if they do not rouse her.

Custom, habit, tradition, the past, pride and, if necessary, military strength: Britannia stands for much in our world that should be as important today as they were in Stuart times. Gordon Brown was shortsighted as well as unchivalrous to consign Britannia to the Royal Mint smelting plants. Let's hope one day that she - and the values for which she stands - will return.

Lyneham Village Poll and Forum Opinions
Should Britannia stay on the 50p coin? Poll here
Rule Britannia - not any more! Forum

Britannia first appeared on the farthing in 1672, followed by the halfpenny later the same year under Charles II. The Ten Shilling note first introduced by the Bank of England in 1928 are generally known as the 'Britannia' design because of the small seated picture of Britannia in the top left corner of each note. This famous style of banknote was used in the UK for over 30 years.