5 Pounds - Elizabeth II Nelson Wounded at Santa Cruz

Issued to mark the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar, this coin belongs to a wider Gibraltar series commemorating specific episodes from Nelson's naval career. The Santa Cruz reference is to the 1797 assault on Tenerife — a disastrous British amphibious attack in which Nelson took grapeshot to his right arm, necessitating amputation above the elbow that same night aboard HMS Theseus. He reportedly wrote his after-action dispatch left-handed within days. The wound effectively ended his career as a boarding officer but did nothing to curtail his command.