2 Pounds - Elizabeth II Frankenstein, Silver Proof

Issued to mark the bicentenary of Mary Shelley's novel, first published anonymously in 1818 when Shelley was just twenty years old. The Royal Mint has produced commemorative two-pound pieces in silver proof format for literary anniversaries since the late 1990s, though the Frankenstein issue attracted unusual crossover interest from horror collectors well outside the normal numismatic market.

Shelley completed the novel at nineteen, partly inspired by a ghost-story competition at the Villa Diodati during the famously sunless summer of 1816 — a season of volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora the previous year.