2 Crowns - Elizabeth II End of the circulating gold in Great Britain

Britain's last circulating gold coinage effectively ended with the outbreak of World War I, when the government suspended gold sovereign payments in 1914 and the public was actively pressured — and later legally compelled — to surrender gold coin to the Bank of England. Sovereigns and half-sovereigns vanished from pockets almost overnight, never to return as everyday money.

The 9-carat composition here is a modern concession to cost, well below the .917 fineness of the sovereigns this issue commemorates.