The Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to receive a formal scientific name, described by William Buckland at Oxford in 1824 from fragmentary jaw remains found in a Stonesfield quarry. The name itself — coined by James Parkinson the year before Buckland's paper — predates the word "dinosaur" by nearly two decades. This 2020 issue inaugurated the Royal Mint's dinosaur series, a commercially shrewd program timed loosely around the bicentenary of early British palaeontology.
The gold proof was struck to the Mint's standard 22-carat specification at 15.5 g, sharing its diameter with the circulating fifty pence — a deliberate design continuity that links the bullion piece back to the everyday coin.
The Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to receive a formal scientific name, described by William Buckland at Oxford in 1824 from fragmentary jaw remains found in a Stonesfield quarry. The name itself — coined by James Parkinson the year before Buckland's paper — predates the word "dinosaur" by nearly two decades. This 2020 issue inaugurated the Royal Mint's dinosaur series, a commercially shrewd program timed loosely around the bicentenary of early British palaeontology.
The gold proof was struck to the Mint's standard 22-carat specification at 15.5 g, sharing its diameter with the circulating fifty pence — a deliberate design continuity that links the bullion piece back to the everyday coin.