The Royal Mint has released The Magna Carta 800th Anniversary 2015 UK £2 BU Coin but a historian pointed out that the image on the coin reverse shows King John signing parchment with a quill is a 'schoolboy error'. Author Dr Marc Morris said that the coin show King John is depicted holding a quill as if about to sign the document – but in reality, he would have stamped it with a seal.
Mr Morris, 41, the author of several books – among them The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the Thirteenth Century and King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta – said the coin was ‘historically wrong’.
Speaking last week, he said: ‘To depict King John holding a quill is simply a schoolboy error.
‘Medieval kings did not authenticate documents by signing them, they did it by sealing them – or rather by getting one of their officials to do it for them.
‘All the pen in John’s hand symbolises is ignorance of this basic fact.’
Mr Morris even created what he described as a ‘more historically accurate’ image of the signing of the Magna Carta out of Playmobil figures and posted the image on Twitter.
In the posting on Twitter he stated: ‘A far more accurate depiction of what went on at Runnymede than that produced by the Royal Mint.’
Bosses at the Royal Mint, however, defended the coin, saying the image on the coin was ‘symbolic’ rather than ‘factual’.
He said: ‘The design is symbolic of King John’s acceptance of the Magna Carta, it is not intended to be interpreted as a literal account of what actually occurred.
‘The design is in fact inspired by King John’s royal seal, the very seal used on the Magna Carta.”
Royal Mint also put a footnote on the coin post "The image used on this coin packaging is a well-known visual representation of historical events from the time, and not factual depiction. The Royal Mint understand that the Magna Carta was in fact witnessed and sealed by King John and not physically signed."
Source: Metro UK
