The Royal Mint release a new 50p to commemorate Alan Turing

[Foster88]

The Royal Mint have released a commemorative 50p to commemorate the genius that was Alan Turing.

This release seems to have gone a little under the radar but I thought I’d share it here for those interested who haven’t seen it.

Available in proof silver, proof gold and the BU cupro nickel.

https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/events/alan-turing/

Edited July 5, 2022 by Foster88

[TheShinyStuff]

Very nice. Hopefully it's not a coincidence that it comes hot on the heels of the Pride 50p.

Anyone who does not know the story of Alan Turing should endeavour to educate themselves.

[Arcadian]

It just looks too bland to me, 50% of the coin means nothing, surely an image of Bletchley Park would have been more appropriate.

[LawrenceChard]

1 hour ago, Arcadian said:

It just looks too bland to me, 50% of the coin means nothing, surely an image of Bletchley Park would have been more appropriate.

Bland, yes.

99.9% of the enigma code meant nothing to most people.

Alan Turing was more than just Bletchley Park.

😎

[Bruce06]

Without Turing, WWII history may be badly changed.

[Petra]

5 hours ago, Arcadian said:

It just looks too bland to me, 50% of the coin means nothing, surely an image of Bletchley Park would have been more appropriate.

Try spelling out some of the letters. Maybe they have been too clever and it is too subtle?

[bluffer]

5 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

Bland, yes.

99.9% of the enigma code meant nothing to most people.

Alan Turing was more than just Bletchley Park.

😎

The reverse is also true though. Bletchley was more than Turing.

 

Any idea why the dropped the silver proof price back down to £57.50? No colour?

[LawrenceChard]

20 minutes ago, bluffer said:

The reverse is also true though. Bletchley was more than Turing.

 

Any idea why the dropped the silver proof price back down to £57.50? No colour?

I agree!

No idea, I didn't know they had!

😎

Edited July 4, 2022 by LawrenceChard

[Stuntman]

See the replies by a couple of people in the British Monarchs thread over in the gold section regarding some of the things in the text block letters.

 

It probably also spells 'Royal Mint Quality Control Is Sometimes Terrible' if you look hard enough 😉

[paulmerton]

8 hours ago, Arcadian said:

It just looks too bland to me, 50% of the coin means nothing, surely an image of Bletchley Park would have been more appropriate.

I thought it was quite clever. The left side of the coin is a bombe drum - probably more recognisable than a building - and the blocks of text on the right contain three hidden messages (plus a possible 4th one if you look beyond the plaintext!)

[Foster88]

2 hours ago, paulmerton said:

I thought it was quite clever. The left side of the coin is a bombe drum - probably more recognisable than a building - and the blocks of text on the right contain three hidden messages (plus a possible 4th one if you look beyond the plaintext!)

I do quite like the design of this 50p.

I’ve seen two of the hidden messages in the text. I haven’t seen a 3rd or 4th. Do tell….

[GoldDiggerDave]

Without a doubt I bet there is a code in there that will need to be deciphered using the enigma cipher. 

 

[Britannia47]

As a bank-note collector as well , I’d like to show how the Bank of England has depicted Alan Turing. This man has got to be my hero!

[bluffer]

4 hours ago, Britannia47 said:

As a bank-note collector as well , I’d like to show how the Bank of England has depicted Alan Turing. This man has got to be my hero!

and its the same quote on the coin

[Foster88]

On 04/07/2022 at 19:46, bluffer said:

The reverse is also true though. Bletchley was more than Turing.

 

Any idea why the dropped the silver proof price back down to £57.50? No colour?

What did it used to be?

[bluffer]

25 minutes ago, Foster88 said:

What did it used to be?

£67.50 

really good site for RM stuff.

https://www.changerange.net/

[paulmerton]

20 hours ago, Foster88 said:

I do quite like the design of this 50p.

I’ve seen two of the hidden messages in the text. I haven’t seen a 3rd or 4th. Do tell….

1. The plaintext in the central block (ONLY A FORETASTE OF WHAT IS TO COME - a Turing quote about the future potential of the bombe).

2. The CD AND MD down the right hand column (the designers).

3. It also reads GEARS GRIN THAN down the left side, which are the what3words code location for the end of the Kennedy Building at Cambridge University. 

4. This could just be a complete coincidence, but while I was looking for other things on the coin I noticed the following... 

Beneath the ONLY A FORETASTE OF WHAT IS TO COME block, the next line reads "FOOD" if you apply a ROT2 transformation to the ciphertext (DMMB -> FOOD, i.e. moving each letter along by 2 places in the alphabet). Applying the same transformation to the next line, of which only 3 characters are visible in full, you get KAB -> MCD.

So that gives you ONLY A FORETASTE OF WHAT IS TO COME.... FOOD MCD

This feels like too much of a coincidence for it to be anything other than a top secret viral advertising campaign in conjunction with the McDonalds restaurant down the road in Llantrisant.

And clearly this is something they want people to keep hush-hush about, as the next line transforms to QFF -> SHH! 

😛

[Foster88]

On 05/07/2022 at 22:11, paulmerton said:

1. The plaintext in the central block (ONLY A FORETASTE OF WHAT IS TO COME - a Turing quote about the future potential of the bombe).

2. The CD AND MD down the right hand column (the designers).

3. It also reads GEARS GRIN THAN down the left side, which are the what3words code location for the end of the Kennedy Building at Cambridge University. 

4. This could just be a complete coincidence, but while I was looking for other things on the coin I noticed the following... 

Beneath the ONLY A FORETASTE OF WHAT IS TO COME block, the next line reads "FOOD" if you apply a ROT2 transformation to the ciphertext (DMMB -> FOOD, i.e. moving each letter along by 2 places in the alphabet). Applying the same transformation to the next line, of which only 3 characters are visible in full, you get KAB -> MCD.

So that gives you ONLY A FORETASTE OF WHAT IS TO COME.... FOOD MCD

This feels like too much of a coincidence for it to be anything other than a top secret viral advertising campaign in conjunction with the McDonalds restaurant down the road in Llantrisant.

And clearly this is something they want people to keep hush-hush about, as the next line transforms to QFF -> SHH! 

😛

You were mostly right. 😆

Mine arrived today and comes with a very interesting and informative pullout.

[dicker]

Turing famously buried approx 150lb of silver fearing Nazi invasion or capital confiscation.

He was one of us.  

[LawrenceChard]

6 minutes ago, dicker said:

Turing famously buried approx 150lb of silver fearing Nazi invasion or capital confiscation.

He was one of us.  

Did he leave any instructions on how to find it?

😎

[jackflash123]

4 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

Did he leave any instructions on how to find it?

😎

His instructions were probably encoded using an Enigma cipher 😆

[Foster88]

2 hours ago, dicker said:

Turing famously buried approx 150lb of silver fearing Nazi invasion or capital confiscation.

He was one of us.  

 

1 hour ago, LawrenceChard said:

Did he leave any instructions on how to find it?

😎

@dicker what’s 150lb in ‘new money’?
I’m a ‘millennial’ with an open mind. 😆 

Apparently, you’re a ‘Millennial’ if you’re born between 1980 - 1996.

I jest of course, I just wish this man could have known he’d be on the £50 note. I wish he’d have had the opportunity to live in a more accepting society.

I remember voting for him a few years ago when there was a poll of candidates for the £50 note. So kudos to The Royal Mint to commemorate him on the 50p also, nearly 70 years after his death.

He gave so much and got so little in return from the country he gave so much to.

Tragic really when you think of it. His sexuality became the focal point of his latter years (early 40’s) during the 1950’s after what ‘the establishment’ of the time did to him.

He gave so much to Britain and got so very little in return.

Thankfully, times are changing.

[Foster88]

This website is a very interesting read, despite its name, but having said that, I think I quite like the website name, radicalteatowel, how very British.

Anyway, aside from my digression, Alan Turing was, I feel, made an example of during 1950’s and his achievements should be recognised and thankfully they are.

https://radicalteatowel.co.uk/blog/alan-turing-a-hero-betrayed 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Foster88

[jackflash123]

29 minutes ago, Foster88 said:

 

@dicker what’s 150lb in ‘new money’?
I’m a ‘millennial’ with an open mind. 😆 

Apparently, you’re a ‘Millennial’ if you’re born between 1980 - 1996.

I jest of course, I just wish this man could have known he’d be on the £50 note. I wish he’d have had the opportunity to live in a more accepting society.

I remember voting for him a few years ago when there was a poll of candidates for the £50 note. So kudos to The Royal Mint to commemorate him on the 50p also, nearly 70 years after his death.

He gave so much and got so little in return from the country he gave so much to.

Tragic really when you think of it. His sexuality became the focal point of his latter years (early 40’s) during the 1950’s after what ‘the establishment’ of the time did to him.

He gave so much to Britain and got so very little in return.

Thankfully, times are changing.

This is an excellent topic for discussion. We must never forget our history, and the mistakes that were made, in the hopes it’s never repeated.

I agree with you completely @Foster88 about the Royal Mint honouring and commemorating Alan Turing. He played such a crucial role in the allied victory and made such a difference to the outcome of the war, and it’s not just the lives he saved while the battle was raging, it’s everyone else’s life that was saved after the war ended. My life, your life and countless others have been saved because of his contributions.

Churchills’ famous quote “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” is an apt statement which absolutely applies to Alan Turing, yet I could easily imagine that many younger people have never even heard his name, let alone understand how he affected the course of their lives by his actions during his own life. I wonder if it’s even taught in school’s? Does todays history lessons teach our children about him and his achievements?

Its for all of the above reasons, every reason mentioned by all who are included in this conversation, that he is remembered and immortalised on the new £50 note and the limited edition 50p piece. We all owe him a debt that can never be repaid.

[Roy]

@Foster88 150lb is 68kg so perhaps your weight in silver?

I hope I'm being generous and not offensive! 😇

I first learnt/read about Turing in the late 60s where the war was still fresh in people's minds. He was a genius and someone a young boy should aspire to be. His sexuality was never mentioned, perhaps this was because the older generation were still in control of what we were exposed to, that would probably change in the 70s as society became more liberal? My grandfathers' generation were a contradictory bunch for sure, then again they'd suffered through two world wars.

Codes were a big part of this schoolboy's life and I hope it stays that way!

Edited July 8, 2022 by Roy