George Orwell Gets His Own £2 Coin Featuring an All-Seeing Eye

The United Kingdom’s Royal Mint is releasing a new coin honoring George Orwell on the 75th anniversary of his death. The £2 (roughly $2.45) piece pays homage to Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell’s famous dystopian novel exploring themes like totalitarianism, propaganda, surveillance and freedom.

“He was a writer concerned with poverty, class and power,” writes the Guardian’s Jamie Grierson. “We will never know how George Orwell would feel about being commemorated on a coin.”

Designed by artist Henry Gray, the coin’s reverse features a large eye with the words “Big Brother is watching you” circling the iris. Orwell’s name is inscribed underneath. On its edge is another quote from the novel, “There was truth and there was untruth.”

“With phones and cameras being everywhere in your house, and being listened to by advertisers on your phone, you are really aware of how you’re being surveyed—and that’s what Nineteen Eighty-Four is all about,” says Gray in a statement from the Mint. 

That’s why the eye in Gray’s design “isn’t a realistic eye; it doesn’t have eyelashes and things like that because I wanted it to be monocular,” he adds. “It’s almost like a camera lens staring at you all the time, unblinking.”

Born in 1903, Orwell spent his early career working with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. With time, however, he became “increasingly ashamed of his role as a colonial police officer,” as Encyclopedia Britannica writes. He drew on these experiences for his first novel, Burmese Days (1934).

About a decade later, Orwell made a name for himself with Animal Farm (1945). The political fable, which uses anthropomorphic animals to tell a story about power and corruption, would become one of his most celebrated works.

Nineteen Eighty-Four followed soon after. Published in 1949, the novel follows Winston Smith, a worker at the Ministry of Truth, as he secretly rebels against a totalitarian government and its leader, Big Brother.

Orwell died at age 46 on January 21, 1950—just a few months after Nineteen Eighty-Four’s publication. He joins a group of celebrated British authors with commemorative coins from the Royal Mint, including William Shakespeare, Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien. (Other recent coins not linked to literature have featured David Bowie, Paddington Bear and Winnie the Pooh, per Londonist’s Matt Brown.)

For those interested in collecting the new £2 piece (which features Charles III on the obverse), it is now available for purchase on the Royal Mint’s website. Those who want a closer look can visit the Royal Mint Experience in Wales to strike their own Orwell coin.

“The works of George Orwell have influenced generations, and his most famous works are still being studied today—decades on from their first publication,” says Rebecca Morgan, director of commemorative coins at the Royal Mint, in another statement. “I am delighted to share this unique design with collectors and fans of Orwell’s work, paying tribute to one of the most world-renowned authors of the 20th century.”

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.