UK Discovery of Insulin Named Most Historically Significant 2021-dated Coin
The United Kingdom’s Royal Mint took home top honors in the Most Historically Significant category in the Coin of the Year Awards for coins dated 2021. Its 50 pence silver coin celebrates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin.
Prior to 1921, a diabetes diagnosis carried grave consequences, with the common prognosis being just one year to live. Fortunately, the medical breakthrough of John Macleod, Sir Frederick Banting, and their expert team consisting of Charles Best and James Collip completely changed the treatment of diabetes.
As described by the Royal Mint, the discovery of insulin revolutionized the treatment for diabetes by making it a manageable condition rather than a death sentence. Today, the use of insulin allows individuals with diabetes to live full lives relatively unconstrained by the lifelong effects of the disease.
The Discovery of Insulin coin was produced in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen. It is the fifth coin in the Royal Mint’s popular Innovation in Science series.
The reverse was designed by renowned artist Iris De La Torre and features an artistic interpretation of the structure of insulin. “I came up with a design inspired by images of an accurate segmentation of single-isolated human insulin crystals for in-situ microscopy that I found in a medical document online,” De La Torre said. “The image shows segments of human insulin crystals in the form of hexagons. It is a beautiful image and inspired a pattern repeat which worked well on the 50p coin.”
The reverse also includes the word insulin, along with its molecular formula C257 H383 N65 O77 S6. The designer’s initials, IDLT, are written below.
The obverse features the Jody Clark effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. She is facing right, wearing the Royal Diamond Diadem crown worn for her Coronation. The obverse includes the lettering ELIZABETH II·D·G·REG·F·D·50 PENCE·2021·J.C, which translates to “Elizabeth the Second by the Grace of God Queen Defender of the Faith” followed by the value and denomination in English and the year.
The 50 pence coin has an equilateral curve heptagon shape, measures 27.3 mm in diameter, and weighs 8 grams. It was minted in Copper Nickel uncirculated with an unknown mintage, Copper Nickel proof with 7000 minted for the proof sets, Silver Proof with a mintage of 3500, Silver Proof Piedfort weighing 16 grams with a mintage of 1500 and gold weighing 15.5 grams with a mintage of 260 coins.