2 Pounds - Elizabeth II 5th portrait, Magna Carta

Issued to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta's sealing at Runnymede in June 1215, this coin appeared during a year of considerable constitutional reflection in Britain — the Scottish independence referendum had concluded just months prior, and questions about parliamentary sovereignty and devolved power were sharpening public interest in foundational legal documents. The charter itself was not the sweeping democratic instrument later mythology demands; it was a baronial negotiating tool, most of its 63 clauses obsolete within years of sealing.

Only three of those original clauses remain on the English statute book today.