Information about National Symbol: Britannia, Standing

The figure of Britannia is best known as a national personification of Great Britain and later the United Kingdom. The name is a Latinisation of the native Brittonic word for the island, Pretanī, which also produced the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally, in the fourth to the first centuries BC, designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Britain. In Modern Welsh the name remains Prydain. After the Roman conquest in 43 AD, Britannia meant Roman Britain, a province covering the island south of Caledonia (roughly Scotland). Britannia is the name given to the female personification of the island, and it is a term still used to refer to the whole island.

When Roman Britain was divided into four provinces in 197 AD, two were called Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. Even then, an allegorical figure of Britannia was already depicted on some provincial Roman coins struck on the island.

A British cultural icon, she has featured on old English coins since 1672, as well as on some colonial coinage. Britannia is usually depicted seated (for which see separate list); however, on some coin types the figure is shown standing - these are listed below.

Standing Britannia on the Britannia bullion series

United Kingdom / Gold Ounce 1990 Britannia

The best known interpretation of the Standing Britannia figure is Philip Nathan's depiction on the definitive type of Britannia bullion coinage.