A batch of Stephen Hawking themed 50p coins will be circulated today.
The coins will feature a swirling black hole design with the name ‘Stephen Hawking’ emblazoned on the top half. The new coin’s design is influenced by Professor Hawking’s contribution to the world of science with his work on black holes.
Prof Hawking died last year aged 76 after being one of the best-known scientists in the world.
He is also one of an elite group of scientists to have been honoured on UK coinage, alongside the likes of Sir Isaac Newton in 2017 and Charles Darwin in 2009.
The Royal Mint reported that, this work, which used a tentative unification of Einstein’s theory of general relativity with quantum mechanics, reported that black holes should not be completely black, instead emitting radiation, meaning they evaporate and eventually disappear.
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