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5 Pounds - Elizabeth II Shakespeare - Richard III
| Issuer | Jersey |
|---|---|
| Year | 2014 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pound (decimalized, 1971-date) |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A mounted knight in full armour on a rearing horse occupies the right portion of the field, accompanied by a Tudor rose motif also to the right. To the left, a citation from Shakespeare's Richard III is inscribed in multiple lines. The denomination FIVE POUNDS appears above, and the famous quotation 'A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!' is incorporated into the reverse lettering, evoking the play's climactic scene. The composition combines heraldic and dramatic literary imagery in a bold, commemorative design. |
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| Mintage | 2014 - Proof - 950 |
| Additional information |
Issued as part of Jersey's broader Shakespeare series marking the 450th anniversary of the playwright's birth, this piece honors Richard III — the play that gave the historical king his most enduring, if deeply unfair, reputation. Tudor propagandists shaped Shakespeare's source material, and Shakespeare amplified it; the withered arm, the hunchback, the scheming villainy were literary constructions as much as historical record. Richard III Society members have argued for decades that the portrait is fiction dressed as chronicle.
The 2012 discovery of Richard's actual remains beneath a Leicester car park confirmed scoliosis, not the deformity Shakespeare described.