Fifty Pence 2019 Stephen Hawking, Coin from United Kingdom - detailed information

The obverse of the coin depicts the crowned old head of Queen Elizabeth II facing right, wearing the Royal Diamond Diadem crown worn for her Coronation (effigy known as the "Fifth Portrait").

Running continuously around the effigy is the monarch's legend and the date: ELIZABETH II · D · G · REG · F · D · 50 PENCE · 2019 ·. Translated from Latin: Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith, followed by the value and denomination in English and the year.

In small letters below the head, the artist's initials J.C (for Jody Clark).

The reverse features a representation of a black hole and an equation linking it entropy to its size.

Amid swirling lines angled to inspire thoughts of space curving around an event horizon is the formula S = kc³ A / 4ℏG. Below that: STEPHEN HAWKING.

The value and the denomination are on the obverse.

Release date: 12 March 2019.
Base metal mintage includes 107,209 individually packaged coins plus 105,000 in mint tubes.

Uniting the fields of general relativity and quantum mechanics, Stephen Hawking continued the work of Albert Einstein to make a series of astonishing discoveries. His work on black holes led him to think bigger, encapsulating the history of the universe in a single equation - a unifying theory of everything.

The equation on the reverse, known as the Bekenstein-Hawking formula - an honour shared with the theoretical physicist Jacob Bekenstein - is a significant step forward in efforts to make the weird properties of black holes fit with existing laws on energy. It links the amount of entropy contained by a black hole with a physical feature of the hole itself: its area. Taken further, it means adding material to a black hole makes its surface expand. This also implies a way to make black holes less black through the emission of a special kind of radiation, a finding that Hawking proudly counted as one of his landmark contributions to science.

Coins in the Innovation in Science series include:
- 50 Pence Stephen Hawking 2019
- 50 Pence Rosalind Franklin 2020
- 50 Pence John Logie Baird 2021
- 50 Pence Charles Babbage 2021
- 50 Pence Discovery of Insulin 2021
- 50 Pence Alan Turing 2022
- £2 Alexander Graham Bell 2022
- £2 Edward Jenner 2023
- £2 Ada Lovelace 2023