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50 Pence - Elizabeth II Our Lady of Europe
| Issuer | Government of Gibraltar |
|---|---|
| Year | 2008 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 1.78 mm |
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| Obverse description | Right-facing effigy of Queen Elizabeth II wearing the George IV State Diadem, as designed by Raphael David Maklouf, occupying the central field of the heptagonal flan. The portrait depicts the Queen with draped shoulders, rendered in fine relief with carefully detailed hair and crown ornamentation. The legend ELIZABETH II arcs along the left periphery, while GIBRALTAR and the date 2008 are inscribed along the right and lower-right margins respectively. The design is the third definitive portrait of the Queen used on Gibraltar coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Gibraltar has issued devotional 50 pence pieces referencing Our Lady of Europe since the 1990s, tied to the shrine at the Rock's southern tip — a site with continuous Catholic veneration dating to at least the 15th century, when a mosque left by the Moors was converted for Marian use by the Spanish. The shrine survived successive sieges, British occupation from 1704, and the near-total displacement of Gibraltar's Spanish Catholic population.
The 2008 issue appeared during a period of renewed Gibraltar-Spain diplomatic friction over sovereignty, making the choice to emphasize this particular local devotion something less than politically neutral.