Gold Proof 2005 Fifty Pence Piece - Samuel Johnson Boxed

In 2005 the Royal Mint celebrated the 250th Anniversary of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language by releasing a Fifty Pence gold proof coin. This proof coin comes with both the certificate of authentication and the original Royal Mint proof box. The Royal Mint only produced 1,000 of these gold coins.

Artist Tom Philips designed the 50p gold coin reverse, cleverly referring to Samuel Johnson's definition of what Fifty Pence was. The Queen's portrait on the obverse side is the fourth portrait of Elizabeth II, as designed by Ian Rank-Broadley.

Samuel Johnson, often called Dr Johnson, was a writer who tried his hand at all manner of work including biographies, poetry, literary criticism, and eventually lexicography - the practice of creating a dictionary. He published 'A Dictionary of the English Language' in 1755. His was the primary English language dictionary until 1884, when the Oxford University Press issued the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).