Stephen Hawking honoured on new 50p coin featuring 'black hole'
The coin features a spiralling black hole, is available to buy from the Royal Mint's website.
(Web Desk) – The Royal Mint has honoured the legacy of renowned and influential physicist Stephen Hawking, who was passed away about a year ago, in the form of a new commemorative 50 pence coin.
Although the collector’s item, sold on the Royal Mint website, would not be released into circulation, the stunning coin displays the formula describing a black hole‘s entropy.
Rather than featuring a portrait of the scientist himself, the designer went for something far more abstract, and yet something Stephen Hawking, who had a great sense of humour, would hopefully have approved of.
The coin features a spiralling black hole, is available to buy from the Royal Mint’s website – with prices ranging from £10 for a brilliant uncirculated version of the coin to £795 for a gold proof coin.
The design of the coin is inspired by Prof Hawking’s pioneering work on black holes and his ability to make science accessible and engaging.
The Mint said: “This work, which used a tentative unification of Einstein’s theory of general relativity with quantum mechanics, reported that black holes should not be completely black, instead emitting radiation, meaning they evaporate and eventually disappear.”
“Hawking Radiation” was an influential development, leading to the conclusion that information is lost as a black hole forms and subsequently evaporates.
Prof Hawking explained black holes in his best-selling book A Brief History of Time.
Edwina Ellis, who designed the coin said: “Stephen Hawking made difficult subjects accessible, engaging and relatable and this is what I wanted to portray in my design, which is inspired by a lecture he gave in Chile in 2008.
“Hawking, at his playful best, invites the audience to contemplate peering into a black hole before diving in. I wanted to fit a big black hole on the tiny coin and wish he was still here chortling at the thought.”
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The commemorative 50p piece is available to buy for £10
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There is also a gold proof version of the 50p which costs £795
Prof Hawking died last year aged 76 having become one of the most renowned scientists in his field, despite his long battle with motor neurone disease.
In recent years, he has been the subject of a film starring Eddie Redmayne, who won an Oscar for the role, and has had a recording of his voice beamed into a black hole.
Prof Hawking once said in an interview with the BBC: “I think my greatest achievement will be my discovery that black holes are not entirely black.”
The design certainly has his daughter Lucy’s approval.
"It is a great privilege to be featured on a coin and I hope my father would be pleased to be alongside Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin as scientists who have made it on to money," Lucy told the BBC.
