2009 Proof £2 Gold Coin Charles Darwin Boxed

2009 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the naturalist Charles Darwin, and to commemorate this date the Royal Mint portrayed Darwin on one of their £2 proof gold collectable coins.

The two pound gold coin - sometimes referred to as the Double Sovereign - contains 14.63 grams of gold (twice the weight of a Sovereign). Due to their status as British Legal tender they are Capital Gains Tax Free (CGT Exempt).

The reverse of the coin was designed by sculptor Suzie Zamit, who was later commissioned by the Royal Mint to design the 2010 and 2016 Gold Britannia coins. The obverse was Ian Rank-Broadley's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, as used between 1998 and 2015.

Boxed with certificate.

Charles Robert Darwin:

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury in 1809. He was originally educated to become a religious minister, but found he was deeply interested in natural history. Darwin made his name following the second voyage of the HMS Beagle, upon which he studied the subject. 

This gold coin also commemorates the 150th anniversary of his later publication, titled 'On the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection', in which Darwin argued that natural selection - also known as survival of the fittest - was the method by which genetics altered over time and that evolution was through this process and not controlled by God. This viewpoint was controversial at the time, given the strength of religious conviction in Britain, but is widely held as accurate today.