5 Pound - Elizabeth II Mallard speed record

The LNER Class A4 locomotive Mallard set its 126 mph record on 3 July 1938 along the Stoke Bank in Lincolnshire — a mark for steam traction that remains unbroken. The run was partly a publicity exercise engineered by Nigel Gresley and LNER management, and the dynamometer car records from that day were contested almost immediately by German rail authorities who claimed superior speeds for their own locomotives. The dispute was never formally resolved.

Guernsey issued commemoratives of this type under licensing arrangements that bear no geographic connection to the subject matter — the island simply operated as a convenient issuing authority for British-themed collector pieces throughout the early 2000s.