I have loved this coin since I was a little boy. I saw it in the British Museum as a child. SO beautiful.






Interesting that under the changes to the British succession, which were recently introduced, under which first born daughters would succeed instead of subsequently born sons, the Hohenzollern, Kaiser Wilhelm, would have been on the British throne in 1914.

If this change had taken place in the Tudor period, then the crucial reign of Edward in which he and his tutor Cranmer turned England Protestant instead of back to Roman Catholic, as Mary later tried and failed, would never have happened. History changed so much because of that short reign.

Those utterly disastrous few years that did so much harm - much worse even than Tony Blair's period. My objection to the change in the law is that it is changing something immensely old and beautiful - plus letting magic in on mystery and ridiculous to try to mix monarchy and egalitarianism. My objection is not because Queens are not so effective as kings although this is true too. But feminism doth make cowards of us all - the only idea even more powerful than anti racism.

Edward VI had he lived would have been much stronger than Elizabeth I. Monarchy lost power under Elizabeth I and Victoria. And there is something about the words 'The King' which gives me goose pimples - 'The Queen' does not.


This Queen has presided over many dreadful things that she could at least have warned against.