UK Cashes in on Brexit: Commemorative Coin to Mark Withdrawal Announced

Royal Mint
Matt Cardy/Getty
Liam Deacon

A 50 pence coin designed to commemorate the UK’s historic exit from the European Union (EU) and retaking of national sovereignty will be issued next year.

The announcement came in Monday’s budget, with the news welcomed by Brexit-supporting MPs and campaigners.

The coin will feature the Queen’s head and the date 29 March 2019 and on the reverse the phrase ‘Peace, Prosperity, and Friendship with all nations’, according to a graphic of the design released by the treasury as Chancellor Philip Hammond spoke.

Brexiteer Tory MP Andrew Rosindell told Breitbart London: “It is very important we mark the historic significance of Brexit in more symbolic ways.

“Just as we had a 25th-anniversary coin marking our EU membership, it is only right we celebrate our newfound independence from the ever-expanding political union.

“The coin’s phrase, ‘Friendship With All Nations’ perfectly reflects our new global outlook.”

UKIP also welcomed the move but took the opportunity to attack the Tory government’s approach to the divorce talks.

“A Brexit 50p coin is a wonderful idea, however this government will debase and short change the British people with Brexit in name only,” the party wrote on Twitter.

The launch of a commemorative 50 pence piece produced for the Commonwealth Games in 2014, at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales, May 25 2014. (Chris Radburn/Getty)

A similar 50 pence coin was struck when the UK joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 and when the UK held the presidency of the EU in 1998.

The EEC evolved into the European Union after a series of treaties that took more and more powers away from nation-states and into the hands of Brussels bureaucrats.

Treasury sources told The Sun newspaper the department had been secretly working on plans for the coin for months before Conservative MPs began to campaign for one.

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