Now, I would just like to make it clear that a four on one fight is not the sort of thing we would normally allow here in ‘The Coin Arena’. However, on this occasion it is necessary. So, if you are squeamish or of a nervous disposition, I am advising that you head to the exit now.
Back in 2003, the UK ‘Suffragette’ fifty pence was released. Nineteen years on, this is still a much-loved coin among collectors, and many would readily say it is one of the best releases we have had to date. Illustrating something of great importance, the coin manages to do this with deceptive simplicity in design terms. I say this because on first impressions it is a straightforward picture – until you scrutinise it and realise just how much detail it actually contains. This detail is also very well-defined.
All was well and the ‘Suffragette’ coin sat proud…. until 2021 when the Isle of Man government decided to release not just one but four two pound coins to commemorate the same issue of women finally gaining the ability to vote.
The IOM release are nice, very nice in fact. But they could have been nicer. The idea of four different hands filling in four different voting forms is undeniably clever. It is also simple and something we immediately grasp when we see the coins. The reason I am saying they could have been nicer is because they are a little flat and unclear. If the hands had stood out a bit more then these coins would have worked far better. Mind you, they could also have been far more cluttered and unclear like the Island’s other muddled mess of a two pound coin that is ‘Hunt the Wren’.
At first glance this quadlet is a serious challenge for the old UK ‘Suffragette’…. but on closer inspection it really isn’t. This is a shame as they are good coins which had the potential to have been very good coins.
In summary, this is quite a sad story for the Isle of Man releases. But, more importantly, it is also a sad story for civilisation; where it was necessary for women to suffer so much in the first place in order to vote like men could. I mean, why should it have even been an issue in the first place? And who ever decided that they came second in terms of gender?
The mind boggles. We human beings really do seem to be good at creating problems where there never were any :/
© Article and images copyright Mik Smith 2022
