5 Pounds - Elizabeth II H.M.S. Revenge, 4th Portrait Silver Proof

HMS Revenge was the flagship at the Battle of Gravelines in 1588, one of the decisive engagements that scattered the Spanish Armada after fireships broke the fleet's formation off Calais. The ship later gained a second, grimmer fame in 1591 when Sir Richard Grenville, commanding alone against a Spanish squadron of some fifty vessels off Flores in the Azores, fought through the night before being mortally wounded — an action that passed into English legend largely through Tennyson and partly through Raleigh's pamphlet account written the same year.

Alderney's commemorative program has consistently drawn on Royal Navy history, and this issue fits squarely within that pattern. The Revenge connection to the Armada gave the coin an anniversary hook, 2009 falling near several overlapping maritime commemorations.