2 Pounds - Elizabeth II Napoleon Bonaparte

Saint Helena's connection to Napoleon is the only reason this coin exists at all. The island served as his final prison from 1815 until his death in 1821, chosen by the British precisely because its remoteness in the South Atlantic made escape effectively impossible. The bicentennial of his death in 2021 prompted a wave of commemorative issues from multiple mints, and Saint Helena — as the one jurisdiction with a legitimate territorial claim to the subject — was among the most credible issuers.

Napoleon died at Longwood House on May 5, 1821. Arsenic poisoning remains a contested theory; the official cause was stomach cancer.