Powercoins iconic 2016 Guy Fawkes coin goes back in time for the latest 2017 issue

An unsuspected treat last year was Roman coin dealer Powercoin releasing a pair of excellent CIT-produced silver coins. Both employed new uber-hit technique SmartMinting and both featured subjects well apart from the usual common ones. One was called Cupid & Psyche and was themed around classic sculpture. Featuring high-relief and colour on both sides, it was a fine numismatic. The other had the culture around the modern movement Anonymous, along with its links to 16th century England as its theme. This is the second one-ounce fine-silver coin.

The 2016 entrant in this series was a widely liked design and depicted an activist wearing the now famous Guy Fawkes mask popularised in the 2005 movie V for Vendetta. Based on the acclaimed 1982 Alan Moore penned and David Lloyd illustrated graphic novel set in an alternative, fascist Britain, the main protagonist’s mask was taken up by the hacker group Anonymous as a symbol of freedom from oppression and corruption. It’s now widely considered a modern cultural icon.

The mask itself heralds back to a stylistic representation of the 1600’s catholic anarchist Guido Fawkes and it’s in this context that the second coin picks up its inspiration. Called Historical Guy Fawkes, the mask is seen being worn by a man in clothing of the period in which Fawkes lived and died. The porcelain effect white mask, done in a highly polished, smooth white finish, is really eye-catching, yet manages to remain an integral part of the design. Never looking like a late addition, it simply blends in seamlessly. The obverse is a simple Cook Islands regular effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. We’re big fans of the first coin and after having seen an early strike of this one last week, we’re even bigger admirers of this sequel.

After the impressive Hand of Fatima coin, and the elegant nanochip-adorned Ceilings of Heaven coins, it’s clear that Powercoin and CIT have a good eye for something that little bit different and the sense to bring it to fruition without major compromise. Last years pair of coins and now a new pair (we’ll have the follow on from Cupid & Psyche shortly), have consolidated a growing reputation and made their releases eagerly awaited. Packaging looks good and it’s priced at a touch under €120 from PowerCoin, although we’d expect other dealers to stock this one as well, including several AgAuNEWS sponsors. It’s available to order now with shipping in May. Only 999 will be struck.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives.

Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he confessed. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes fell from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed. Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in Britain since 5 November 1605. His effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by a fireworks display.