The sovereign is a legal-tender gold coin of the United Kingdom with a nominal value of one pound sterling. Struck from 1817 until the present time, it was originally a circulating coin accepted in Britain and elsewhere in the world; it is now a bullion coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery. In most recent years, it has borne the well-known design of Saint George and the Dragon on the reverse (pictured), created by Benedetto Pistrucci. Issued as part of the Great Recoinage of 1816, it not only became a popular circulating coin, but was used internationally, trusted as a coin containing a known quantity of gold.
From the 1850s until 1932, the sovereign was also struck at colonial
mints. With the start of the First World War in 1914, the sovereign vanished from circulation in Britain, replaced by paper money, and it did not return afterwards. In addition to its bullion use, it has been struck since 1979 for collectors.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_%28British_coin%29
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1839:
Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, premiered at La Scala in Milan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberto_%28opera%29
1950:
The 14th Dalai Lama assumed full temporal power as ruler of Tibet at the age of fifteen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Dalai_Lama
1997:
Sixty-two people were killed by Islamist terrorists outside Deir el-Bahari in Luxor, one of Egypt's top tourist attractions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_massacre
2013:
Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashed during an aborted landing at Kazan International Airport, Russia, killing all fifty people on board and leading to the revocation of the airline's operating certificate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatarstan_Airlines_Flight_363
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
ulp: 1. The sound of a person gulping in fear. [...] 2. (computer science, mathematics) The value that the least significant digit of a floating-point number represents, used as a measure of accuracy in numeric calculations. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ulp
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I paint a gradual slipping out of the now, to that beautiful then, where there are neither kings, presidents, landlords, national bankers, stockbrokers, railroad magnates, patentright monopolists, or tax and title collectors; where there are no over-stocked markets or hungry children, idle counters and naked creatures, splendor and misery, waste and need. I am told this is farfetched idealism, to paint this happy, povertyless, crimeless, diseaseless world; I have been told I "ought to be behind the bars" for it. Remarks of that kind rather destroy the white streak of faith. I lose confidence in the slipping process, and am forced to believe that the rulers of the earth are sowing a fearful wind, to reap a most terrible whirlwind. When I look at this poor, bleeding, wounded World, this world that has suffered so long, struggled so much, been scourged so fiercely, thorn-pierced so deeply, crucified so cruelly, I can only shake my head and remember: The giant is blind, but he's thinking: and his locks are growing, fast. --Voltairine de Cleyre https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltairine_de_Cleyre
daily-article-l@lists.wikimedia.org