The Old Head coinage were British coins struck and dated between 1893 and 1901, with a portrait by Thomas Brock of an aged Queen Victoria (example shown). It replaced the Jubilee coinage, struck since 1887, which had been widely criticised. In 1891, a committee was appointed to consider the matter, and recommended replacements. Some coins continued with their old reverse designs, with Benedetto Pistrucci's design for the sovereign extended to the half sovereign, and others gained new ones, created either by Brock or by Edward Poynter. The issue became the first to bear, as part of the monarch's royal titles, IND IMP, abbreviated Latin for 'Empress of India'. The issue originally consisted only of gold and silver coins, but in 1895, the Brock head of Victoria was placed on the bronze coinage (the penny and its fractions) as well. They continued to be struck until Victoria's death in 1901 caused a change in the obverse design; starting in 1902, the coinage bore the head of her successor, Edward VII.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Head_coinage

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1346:

Hundred Years' War: English forces established the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights at the Battle of Crécy (depicted). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cr%C3%A9cy

1928:

At a cafe in Paisley, Scotland, a woman found the remains of a snail in her bottle of ginger beer, giving rise to the landmark civil action case Donoghue v Stevenson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donoghue_v_Stevenson

1955:

Pather Panchali, the first film in The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, was released and went on to win many Indian and international film awards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pather_Panchali

1966:

The South African Defence Force launched an attack against SWAPO guerrilla fighters at Omugulugwombashe, starting the South African Border War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Border_War

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

stockpile: 1. A supply (especially a large one) of something kept for future use, specifically in case the cost of the item increases or if there a shortage. 2. (specifically, military, weaponry) A supply of nuclear weapons kept by a country. 3. (mining) A pile of coal or ore heaped up on the ground after it has been mined. 4. (transitive) 5. To accumulate or build up a supply of (something). 6. (specifically, military, weaponry) To build up a stock of (nuclear weapons). 7. (mining) To heap up piles of (coal or ore) on the ground after it has been mined. 8. (intransitive) To build up a supply; to accumulate. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stockpile

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Christopher would find himself able to believe — as a possibility, at least — that an eternal impersonal presence (call it "the soul" if you like) exists within all creatures and is other than the mutable non-eternal "person." He would then feel that all his earlier difficulties had been merely semantic; that he could have been converted to this belief at any time in his life, if only someone had used the right words to explain it to him. Now, I doubt this. I doubt if one ever accepts a belief until one urgently needs it.   --Christopher Isherwood https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood