UK coins
The 2025 George Orwell £2 is watching you…
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
You might recognise this motto from the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), perhaps one of George Orwell’s best known works. And if you’re a fan of Orwell’s stories, you’ll be delighted to hear that a UK £2 coin has been issued to celebrate his life and works.
An ‘eye’ for detail
The 2025 UK George Orwell £2 has been issued 75 years after the passing of English novelist, poet, journalist and social critic, Eric Arthur Blair – better known by his pen name George Orwell.
The reverse design, created by Henry Gray in collaboration with the Orwell Foundation, features an illustration of an eye in reference to the all-seeing Big Brother from Orwell’s final novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the centre of the eye is a camera lens surrounded by the iconic tagline “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”, and yet another famous quote from the story, “THERE WAS TRUTH AND THERE WAS UNTRUTH”, serves as the coin’s edge inscription.
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Other works
During his life, Orwell penned several novels including Animal Farm, A Clergyman’s Daughter and Keep the Aspidistra Flying, as well as three nonfiction works, and he was even named the second-greatest British writer since 1945 by The Times in 2008, second only to Philip Larkin.
Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
However, his 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four remains one of the most influential books in popular and political culture, with many words and phrases from the story becoming part of the English language.
Previous UK coins issued to celebrate British literature and legendary writers have proven incredibly popular with collectors. We’ve seen the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle feature on UK coins in recent years, and George Orwell is a welcome addition.
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The 2025 HMS Belfast £2 is setting sail for your collection!
The latest UK £2 coin commemorates one of the most iconic ships in the Royal Navy, HMS Belfast, whose legacy has endured from its days in World War II right up to today, where it stands preserved as a floating museum on the River Thames.
And excitingly, this is the FIRST 2025 dated £2 coin to be released!
HMS Belfast in stunning detail
HMS Belfast is one of the most iconic Royal Navy ships that served in some of the most pivotal events of the 20th century, including escorting Arctic convoys in 1943, the Battle of North Cape later that year and even supported the Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944. A vessel steeped in so much history, it’s only fitting that HMS Belfast now has a UK coin dedicated to her.
The design of the 2025 UK HMS Belfast £2 has been created by designer and sculptor Gary Breeze with the assistance of Imperial War Museums. It perfectly captures the ship’s historic significance, showing it as it appeared in the 1960s, accompanied by the ship’s motto in Latin – ‘PRO · TANTO · QVID · RETRIBVAMVS’ as the edge inscription.
Secure your 2025 UK HMS Belfast £2 for just £9.99 (+p&p) >>
But isn’t there already a UK HMS Belfast £2?
You may be reading this thinking to yourself, isn’t there already a HMS Belfast £2 coin in circulation?
Well, you may be thinking of the 2015 First World War Navy £2 coin, which is often affectionately nicknamed the ‘HMS Belfast £2’ due to the battleship’s striking resemblance to the town-class light cruiser.
The Royal Mint never officially designated the ship on the 2015 coin as the HMS Belfast, but the similarity sparked widespread affection for the coin, and it’s remained a favourite among collectors for almost a decade.
The 2025 UK HMS Belfast £2, however, leaves no room for ambiguity as the ship features unmistakeably in the centre of the design.
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2024 Change Checker Awards – Winners Revealed!
Change Checkers, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the 2024 Change Checker Awards winners ceremony!
2024 was an amazing year for UK coins and for collectors too. We had so many incredible nominations for Change Checker and Junior Change Checker of the Year, but there can only be one winner of each…
Change Checker of the Year
Our 2024 Change Checker of the Year is…Bryan Hyman!
Bryan was nominated three times for his coin knowledge, kindness and generosity helping others build their collections, and of course a very impressive collection of his own!
Congratulations Bryan, keep up the good work!
Junior Change Checker of the Year
This year, Junior Change Checkers of the Year goes to…Dylan from Sussex!
Dylan was nominated by his mum who said that, at just 11 years old, he has a fantastic coin collection and is hugely knowledgeable about coins and their history. He helps his school friends to discover the joy of collecting, swapping with each other to grow their collections, and he even has his own YouTube channel – check him out @DylanCollectsCoins
Congratulations Dylan, keep collecting and inspiring others.
Both Bryan and Dylan will be receiving a personalized engraved Change Checker trophy, a Change Checker bundle of goodies worth £50 AND a year’s subscription to Coin Collector Magazine! A big thank you to All About Coins for gifting the subscriptions for this year’s Change Checker Awards – I think we can all agree it makes a fantastic prize!
2024 Coin Design of the Year
This year, we also asked you to vote for your favourite 2024 UK coin design!
With so many incredible UK coins issued this year, it’s hard to chose just one – but the votes are in and it seems we have a clear winner…
With 23.84% of the votes, the RNLI 50p has been voted as your favourite 2024 coin!
The top 5 also included the D-Day 50p, the Team GB and ParalympicsGB 50p, the 2024 Snowman 50p and the Six Decades of Bond £5!
A big thank you once again to All About Coins for supporting us this year and of course a huge congratulations to our winners!
We’d like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support in 2024 and wish you luck with your Change Checking in 2025!
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