LONDON (AP) — A commemorative coin that includes the picture of a watch and the inscription “Big Brother is watching you” is being released to pay tribute to “Nineteen Eighty-four” writer George Orwell and mark his loss of life 75 years in the past.
The two-pound ($2.40) coin depicts what seems to be a watch however is a digital camera lens, and the coin’s edge is inscribed with one other quote from Orwell’s dystopian novel: “There was truth and there was untruth.”
Coinage artist Henry Grey mentioned the theme of totalitarianism was central to his design.
“With telephones and cameras being in every single place in your home, and being listened to by advertisers in your cellphone, you might be actually conscious of the way you’re being surveyed — and that’s what ‘1984’ is all about,” he mentioned.
“That’s why the attention (within the design) isn’t a practical eye. It doesn’t have eyelashes and issues like that as a result of I needed it to be monocular. It’s virtually like a digital camera lens looking at you on a regular basis, unblinking.”
The novel, set in a fictional future, depicts civil servant Winston Smith’s secret rise up towards a totalitarian authorities and its chief, Massive Brother.
Orwell, who additionally wrote the political fable “Animal Farm,” died in a London hospital at age 46 on Jan. 21, 1950, a number of months after “Nineteen Eighty-four” was revealed.
The Royal Mint mentioned the collector’s coin shall be launched on Wednesday with costs ranging from 17.50 kilos every.
Different literary figures who’ve been commemorated on 2-pound cash embody William Shakespeare, Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien.
