25 Pounds - Elizabeth II Royal Navy - H.M.S. Warspite

HMS Warspite earned more battle honours than any other vessel in Royal Navy history — fifteen in total, spanning Jutland in 1916 through to the Normandy landings in 1944. Her 1940 action at Narvik, where she sailed up a fjord under fire to destroy seven German destroyers, remains one of the more audacious surface engagements of the Second World War.

Alderney's commemorative gold program of the mid-2000s leaned heavily on British naval prestige, and Warspite was an obvious choice. The ship was sold for scrapping in 1947 but ran aground off Prussia Cove in Cornwall before reaching the breakers — a final act of defiance that took demolition crews years to complete on the beach.