2018-10-10 Wed

The Royal Mint released special £2 coins called Modern Prometheus, in different varieties to celebrate 200 years of Mary Shelley’s horror classic Frankenstein. The reverse features the text Frankenstein in a spiked font, created by Thomas T. Docherty. The font looks like an ECG pulse reading of a heartbeat. The reverse features a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. The coins are available in four metals – Base metal, normal silver, silver coin in piedfort thicknesses and gold.

18-year-old Mary Godwin, poet and future husband Percy Shelley and her other friends entertained themselves with ghost stories near Lake Geneva in 1816. They also discussed different facets of human life. On that stormy night, Mary Godwin thought of a scientist who wanted to reanimate a corpse with the help of many bodies. The same idea was developed further to take the shape of the classic 1818 horror story, Frankenstein. In the story, Victor Frankenstein brings the Creature to life which ultimately leads to a tragic end for his family as well as the Creature.

Image Courtesy: The Royal Mint