Latin on the side of coins

[poppyj]

Hey, Does anyone know what the various phrases round the outsides of pound coins say? Or what the latin within the royal crest (if that's what it's called) says? Thanks xxx

[sft42]

Standing on the shoulders of giants.

[bernardo]

Nemo me impune lacessit - nobody provokes me with impunity.

decus et tutamen - an ornament and a safeguard. (This is a reference to the milling round the edge of a coin, which was invented as a way of preventing thieves from clipping trimmings off the edge of coins when they were made of silver or gold)

Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad - I am faithful to my country (this is a line from the Welsh national anthem)

[bernardo]

Honi soit qui mal y pense - eveil to him who thinks evil of it (this is Mediaeval French, not Latin) (I presume this is what you mean)

The Prince of Wales's crest has "ich dien" - I serve (This is German: I don't know why it's a motto in German instead of Welsh)

[Hippy]

"Ich Dien" is German because that where the present Royal Family come from. Queen Anne died in 1714, the last of the Stuarts, without a direct male heir. The Government, foreseeing this problem, passed The Act of Settlement in 1701 preventing a Roman Catholic becoming monarch and forbidding foreigners occupying a Government post.

This made the way clear for the crowning of George I, the Elector of Hanover, a region of Germany. He was a German who did not speak English and sired a crazy clan that continues today.

Whilst Victoria was a Hanover monarch, she had to renounce the official rulership of Hanover in favour of Britain, and Edward VII took the real family name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

This became an embarrassment during the First World War, and the more homely sounding "Windsor" was favoured by George V who changed the name to try to become more British. Edward VIII only lasted a few months in 1936 before abdicating for the love of Mrs. Simpson, and Bertie his brother became the reluctant and stuttering George VI. Note he still chose the official name to reflect the Hanover origin of his family. He died in 1952 and our present Queen became ruler. This inbred and dysfunctional family stagger on, but German they certainly are.

[woofgang]

decus et tutamen means an ornament and a defence. come from medieval times when coins were made of silver and unscrupulous merchants would clip bits off the edges. decorating the sides made clipping easier to spot.

[woofgang]

I must be slow this morning, missed BERNADO's contribution entirely!!

[sft42]

Gawd, I was sleeping when I answered that....Mine is on the two pound coin....Sorry!

[bernardo]

Hippy - yes we know all that, but why did the Prince of WALES choose a GERMAN motto? And why did you hilariously, ridiculously and falsely try to pretend that the Royal Family is "crazy", "inbred", or "dysfunctional"? I presume it was a misprint for "highly respected", "well worth the money which they pay to the taxpayer", and "a vital constitutional safeguard against the threat of tyranny".

[sft42]

The current royal family are inbred to any description of term....Diana was the first fresh blood to come into european royal circles in centuries. They are certainly dysfunctional in terms of an ordinary family in that if your mother went into hospital, even for a small op, like the queen did recently, wouldn't you go to see her? not one of her chinless sprogs did.

"Highly respected"...not anymore, the last member of the royal family that was held in any esteem by the public was the old gin swilling matriarch who has gone to the bookies in the sky....the rest all hideously blotted their copy books through the 90s and the whole diana scandal.

"Well worth the money..." your having a laugh aren't you? As for that old chestnut about tourism...rubbish...loads of european countries no longer have a monarchy and still pull in the tourists.

"A vital constitutional safeguard....." now I know your on mind altering drugs...tyranny? What threat has there been to the constitution in the past 150 years? Apart from the 2 world wars which would have been fought and more likely better so than having sympathisers as the head of state.

[bernardo]

I didn't mention anything about bringing in the tourists. As far as the money is concerned, the Royal Family pays to the Exchequer all the income from the Crown Estates - which is far more than the entire cost of the Civil List, the Roayal train, palaces, and et cetera. A threat to the constitution was in 1912, when King George V threatened to use the Roayal veto in order to prevent the whole of Ireland becoming independent before any arrangement had been met to meet the concerns of the Unionists in the north.

[poppyj]

Thank you all very much, I've wanted to know these answers for years for some unknow reason! So thank you! x

[gnasher]

tongs ya bass

[ChardCoins]

Yes, almost every inscription, properly called a legend, on British coins can be found at: http://www.24carat.co.uk/coininscriptions.html together with translations, and links to other pages with images and further descriptions of the coins.