ChatterBank1 min ago
inscriptions on pound coins
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What do they mean
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I hesitate to disagree with Einstein, and am doffing my cap as I do so, but "Decus et Tutamen" means "an ornament and a safeguard"
However he's right on the other two counts, "No-one provokes me with impunity" is the Latin motto of the Order of the Thistle, and is used on the Scottish designs.
For more info than you could possibly ever want, this page is excellent: http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/decnb.html
However he's right on the other two counts, "No-one provokes me with impunity" is the Latin motto of the Order of the Thistle, and is used on the Scottish designs.
For more info than you could possibly ever want, this page is excellent: http://www.tclayton.demon.co.uk/decnb.html
'Decus et tutamen' is from Vergil's 'Aeneid' ( Book 5 line 202 since you ask). There it describes a 'lorica', a fancy breastplate of leather, later bronze, which served as both ornament and protection. It's really a 'joke' by the mint. The inscription was used before on coins; it stopped criminals clipping them to take slivers of gold off the edge, so the embossed words there ornamented but also safeguarded the coinage .
Our website has pages with photographs and descriptions of pound coins, and we also have a page with coin inscriptions found on UK coins:-
http://www.24carat.co.uk/coininscriptions.html
The images are much better than those on Tony Clayton's site!
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