The Royal Mint Honors Stephen Hawking With 50-Pence Coin
Marking one year since he passed.
It has already been a year since one of the greatest minds has left this physical plane. To commemorate Stephen Hawking and his work as a theoretical physicist, The Royal Mint have stamped a special collectible 50-pence coin.
As the physicist spent a great deal of his life researching the behavior of black holes and has published several books on the matter, it was only right that the coin depicts Stephen Hawking’s name sandwiched between a black hole and the Bekenstein–Hawking equation S=kAc^3/4hG.
The first two coins were struck by the late professor’s daughter and son, Lucy and Tim Hawking. In an interview with Mashable, the designer of the commemorative coin, Edwina Ellis, commented with, “Stephen Hawking made difficult subjects accessible, engaging and relatable and this is what I wanted to portray in my design. I wanted to fit a big black hole on the tiny coin and wish he was still here chortling at the thought.”
The standard variation of the coin is currently available at The Royal Mint for a price of £10 GBP. The coin was also offered in a limited silver, and gold version for £95 GBP and £795 GBP, respectively, but are currently all reserved.
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An extra special day at The Royal Mint. We are delighted to have welcomed Lucy and Tim Hawking who struck their very own coins to commemorate their father’s outstanding contribution to science. See behind the scenes of their visit! https://t.co/67G6ZpPnEm @HawkingFound pic.twitter.com/d5FYwFCPOl
— The Royal Mint (@RoyalMintUK) March 12, 2019
