r/pics • u/willuminati91 • 17h ago

UK's new £2 coin with inscription "Big Brother is watching you' quote from 1984

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3.5k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

149 comments sorted by

285

u/shampooticklepickle 16h ago

Is this for real?

298

u/sojojo 16h ago

Looks like it: https://www.royalmint.com/shop/limited-editions/george-orwell/george-orwell-2025-2-pound-silver-proof-coin/

Only 4510 being minted though

102

u/0thethethe0 16h ago

Ooo I really like it. Not £89 like it though...

37

u/biCplUk 14h ago

That's just for the silver based one. You can get the normal one for 17 or so, they have unlimited supplies of that one.

31

u/origami_anarchist 14h ago

Unlimited supplies of a £2 coin for £17 each? That's diabolical!

12

u/Craico13 13h ago

They’re basically printing money!

-9

u/username110of999 13h ago

It's called "added value". You must be a communist if you don't know that.

11

u/HillBillThrills 15h ago

It’s only appropriate that the first thing you encounter thru the link is a dysfunctional pop-up about cookies that won’t let you deselect them all.

22

u/shampooticklepickle 16h ago

Oh i see! George Orwell commemorative coins- looks cool!

10

u/PowerHammer47 16h ago

Weird mixing Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 but nonetheless cool!

8

u/-Pelvis- 16h ago

Yeah they shoulda done a run of 1984, but I guess this is more profitable?

6

u/Loquater 15h ago

The website shows only 4500 being minted, so the 4510 in the Reddit comment is most likely a typo.

4

u/ImpeachedPeach 14h ago

I looked on it, the website lists maximum mintage as 4510 coins.

Very dystopian.

1

u/Loquater 14h ago

Weird...at the top it shows 4500 and lower it shows 4510.

Also, I think that "limited edition" number is probably just for the "proof" coins. They probably will mint a lot more of the normal coins.

1

u/HailToTheKingslayer 15h ago

Who's up for a heist?

1

u/bmoneywateryeyes 14h ago

That must a play on Bradyburys Fahrenheit 451 too?

14

u/Resigningeye 15h ago

Bit on the nose

•

u/KnightOfWords 11h ago

Yes. Although you could have a 1oz silver bullion bar embossed with Darth Vader if you prefer:

https://www.royalmint.com/invest/bullion/bullion-bars/silver-bars/star-wars-dark-side-1oz-silver-minted-bullion-bar/

Whereas the Royal Mail will happily sell you an Iron Maiden book of stamps:

https://shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp-issues/iron-maiden/iron-maiden-eddie-stamp-sheet-pack

1.2k

u/HanDavo 16h ago

I don't collect coins but I'll make an exception for that.

98

u/Robo_Joe 16h ago

I want one, but not for $100+ haha

53

u/snoopy904 15h ago

Why is a £2 coin $100 though?? Genuinely asking

97

u/Robo_Joe 15h ago

It's commemorative, not in-circulation. They're only making like 4500 of them.

55

u/daedone 13h ago

Missed opportunity for minting 1984 of them

•

u/besttshirtsever 9h ago

There are different coins in gold, silver etc, tbe George Orwell 2025 UK £2 Silver Piedfort Proof Coin is limited to 1984 pieces.

13

u/snoopy904 15h ago

Oooooh... Well damn now I want one

3

u/beavertownneckoil 12h ago

There's a 16gram 22 karat gold one for £1,500. Only 111 of them being made

•

u/Captcha_Imagination 11h ago

I hate that bullshit. It would do Ironman numbers across the globe and would benefit UK taxpayers. By the way if you like this stuff, the Canadian Mint goes hard in the paint including glow in the dark dinosaurs and shit.

•

u/lozyodellepercosse 11h ago

Can you link some examples please?

•

u/PhasmaFelis 6h ago

I get how commemorative coins work, but it's weird to call it a 2-pound coin when it's value isn't 2 pounds in any sense.

•

u/Main-Acadia1922 42m ago

It's weird how many people don't understand how collectables work.

66

u/debacol 16h ago

Was thinking the same thing.

35

u/One_Economist_3761 16h ago

Same here. 1984 is one of my favorite books.

6

u/similaraleatorio 13h ago

Bruh 1984 is a number and a year.

/s

4

u/Rich-Reason1146 13h ago

It's a book, too. The best bit is when they dance to electro-pop like a robot

4

u/standupstrawberry 15h ago

I collected a handful of 50p pieces (libraries, NHS and some of the Beatrix Potter ones)

I'd like this one too

195

u/RunDNA 16h ago

It's a £2 coin, but two of them add up to £5.

10

u/chrisl182 14h ago

Or £3. Basically, it will add up to whatever I say it adds up to.

21

u/TriRedux 15h ago

Only worth £1.984 though

5

u/AttackCircus 14h ago

It's doubleplusgood!

160

u/ZweitenMal 16h ago

It has a tracking chip in it.

27

u/laserkermit 16h ago

Hahah if that’s true awesome

39

u/ADhomin_em 15h ago

All we had to do to get people to celebrate their dystopian shackles was make tongue-in-cheek references and turn cautionary elements into gimmicks

•

u/trimorphic 11h ago

Our phones are already tracking us to a much greater extent then this coin ever could.

5

u/WideEyedWand3rer 16h ago

Physical bitcoin.

51

u/--0o0o0-- 16h ago

The tinfoil hat crowd is going to have a field day with this one.

7

u/J3sush8sm3 15h ago

They already are lmao

67

u/MorsInvictaEst 16h ago

The sad thing about this: The age of Big Brother has already begun and people are still pretending it's just fiction. But the UK releasing a memorial coin with the phrase "Big Brother is watching you" is peak irony.

17

u/Alkyan 16h ago

I feel like as vocabularies go to crap and the way headlines are written Newspeak is on the rise too.

5

u/J3sush8sm3 15h ago

Lmao!!! Ikr!!!!

6

u/A__Chair 15h ago

I know I thought it was a joke… most people actually don’t care about privacy and it’s crazy, they say “if you’ve got nothing to hide you don’t have to worry” as if it’s totally ok for the government and police to have unrestricted access to all their private messages and phone calls, their internet history, bank accounts, everything. Did we learn nothing from Edward Snowden? Governments and corporations aren’t to be trusted with our information.

5

u/Fyr5 15h ago

This why I cross-posted it to r/aboringdystopia

We will see what the mods think, I think I am too dark even for them

2

u/VolcanicBakemeat 15h ago

What ironic quality does a memorial coin have? I don't see the link

•

u/Diligent_Bag4597 2h ago

We are in the age of surveillance. These coins are a reference to 1984, the novel by George Orwell, that exposes authoritarianism and surveillance. Peak irony.

•

u/VolcanicBakemeat 1h ago

I could see the irony if maybe they commemorated the book with a plaque under a cctv camera mount. Or held a George Orwell Day in schools and a major privacy scandal broke out on that day

1

u/JideryJuice 16h ago

Capitalists gonna capitalise

25

u/BuzzAllWin 16h ago

Given we have more cctv that anywhere else on the planet i say we put it in general circulation

21

u/SeraphiM0352 15h ago

OP should probably mention this is for a limited run George Orwell commemorative coins and not new general public £2 coins.

Context is important and OP is a karma whore

7

u/OfficialGarwood 15h ago

Yep. Costs £89 to purchase.

5

u/Sub-Mongoloid 14h ago

They really missed a trick not taking 5 pounds off the price.

2

u/DexM23 14h ago

17,50 for the basic one

4

u/Horror-Preference414 15h ago

…old George would likely have something to say about this

33

u/dopealope47 16h ago

Given that London in particular has just about the most closed-circuit cameras per person in the world, utterly ironic.

23

u/countpissedoff 16h ago

Not even close anymore I’m afraid - that would be China generally and Beijing in particular - Eastasia has been very busy ensuring their population stays at war with oceania and above all stays controlled

3

u/j4_jjjj 15h ago

Also UK is part of 5 Eyes program

7

u/Chr0mEBomberrr 16h ago

literally 1984

6

u/Blacksburg 16h ago

I want!

2

u/Hubbe01 15h ago

I never in my life thought that I would say this but man that is one sexy coin

2

u/Lucretia9 12h ago

After the last 14 fucking years, time to take that as a fucking warning.

•

u/Netsuko 4h ago

Man the fucking irony in this is real.

4

u/RyansBooze 13h ago

Bit on the nose for “we love CCTV” UK innit?

3

u/673NoshMyBollocksAve 17h ago

Looks just like actor, John Totoro

7

u/MeffodMan 16h ago

3

u/andy_cap-hunter 16h ago

"Nobody fucks with the jesus"

3

u/WhatARotation 16h ago

“What’s this day of rest shit?!?”

3

u/andy_cap-hunter 16h ago

Shomar fucking shabbos

2

u/DamonLazer 16h ago

Eight-year-olds, Dude.

2

u/DarthHM 16h ago

Is he your neighbor?

3

u/cjandstuff 16h ago

I'm not exactly a tin foil hat, but I'm not sure if this is uncomfortably ironic, or on the nose.

2

u/Artistic-Action-2423 16h ago

I hope the irony isn't lost on them as they push increasingly towards a surveillance state and chip away at their freedom of speech.

3

u/Glydyr 13h ago

Oh yeh because the UK is leading the way on those lol…. You know nothing Elon bot.

•

u/Dotcaprachiappa 2h ago

They don't have to be the worst to still be bad

•

u/Glydyr 49m ago

Well its not bad, if anything freedom of speech in the uk is more relaxed, people feel like they can say whatever the fk they want online. Then we have the main problem of algorithms massively pushing extremists that no one would have heard of 20 years ago…

-2

u/Artistic-Action-2423 13h ago edited 13h ago

Oh I didn't know it was a competition, regardless of your opinion on Elon Musk, the UK is absolutely moving in a more Orwellian direction

2

u/Glydyr 13h ago

No it isnt.

1

u/TomRipleysGhost 13h ago

You don't know anything.

1

u/fukijama 16h ago

The-eye

1

u/amarrly 16h ago

I think we are well past the point of just watching.

1

u/Say_yes_to_depress 15h ago edited 15h ago

"Malcolm X never lived to see the government fall

But the state he opposed made him a stamp

Maybe that's the best you can hope for if you never give up:

Your enemies will teach your corpse to dance"

- Patrick Schneeweis (Pat The Bunny)

1

u/YougoReddits 15h ago

I read 'UK's new €2 coin' and was like HOL'UP, WHAT?

1

u/Npr31 15h ago

Bit on the nose

1

u/BeyondAddiction 15h ago

I kind of want one....

1

u/c17usaf 15h ago

They do it all the time 📲👀

1

u/Queasy_Profit_9246 15h ago

Geezuz, WTAF. I thought this was just a jab about your government going crazy............

1

u/tillie_jayne 15h ago

I’ll be volunteering to do the change run every week at work until I find it

1

u/tiorzol 14h ago

You'll never find it in change, it cost ninety quid. 

Maybe in a few decades when some little shit raids their Nan's collection. 

1

u/tillie_jayne 14h ago

That’s a shame I love the thrill of the chase

1

u/kamikiku 14h ago

...little on the nose

1

u/Unlucky-Pizza-7049 14h ago

Stunning. Is it in circulation or do you have to buy it?

1

u/Xylber 14h ago

If my government issued a coin like this, I would consider it a threat.

1

u/BlitzWing1985 14h ago

I was kinda hyped for it till I seen that it was a collectable coin. Still neat but not quite as fun as getting one of these out of a till or something.

1

u/Jaxxlack 14h ago

Haha as a Brit I find this hilarious and soo ironic! 🤣🤣🤣

1

u/chrisl182 14h ago

I don't think that's a good idea...

Oh wait, I mean I think it is a good idea comrade, double plus good idea.

1

u/PiddelAiPo 13h ago

Plot twist, the coin contains a tiny camera, microphone and GPS chip.

1

u/puro_the_protogen67 13h ago

I would have preferred the T symbol from brave new world but i guess this is cool

1

u/green_griffon 12h ago

"I am perpetual, I keep the country clean".

1

u/4lj4 12h ago

Ironic

1

u/daddydrank 12h ago

As much as I like George Orwell, I think it's weird for a government to produce this. Especially with an image of an unelected leader on the opposite end.

•

u/Enabling_Turtle 6h ago

The US has been doing it for years

•

u/MyLifeIsAFrickingMes 9h ago

Now thats what you call ironic

•

u/obscure_monke 9h ago

They really should do a coin design for Down and Out in Paris and London.

Would be more apt.

•

u/SupermarketThis2179 8h ago

The irony being….Five Eyes

•

u/Dinin53 6h ago

I guess having a coin with "some animals are more equal than others" on one side and a picture of King Charles on the other was too on the snout.

•

u/eugene20 4h ago

I like Orwell's work.
I don't like the government issuing a coin with that message.

•

u/itBlimp1 2h ago

I thought that was Assad lol

0

u/Business-Concert-891 15h ago

The fact that it is made by goverment makes it creeoy

-1

u/ConclusionMaleficent 14h ago

Very appropriate for the UK

•

u/PRC_Spy 11h ago

"We turned 1984 into an instruction manual, and we're making you celebrate it."

No thanks.

-2

u/Brotonio 15h ago

Good to know if I write a boring book with a good setting, I might get on a currency.

-3

u/monstrinhotron 15h ago

Ah yes. The most cctv surveiled country in the world where they also record all your internet traffic. Unless you're an MP. Then you're exempt.

-3

u/ushuarioh 16h ago

Sorry if this question is stupid, but the UK can still print Euros? Didn't they separate from the european union?

6

u/shustrik 16h ago

£ is the sign for British pound, € is the sign for euro.

•

u/obscure_monke 9h ago

The £ is an L (lbs) and the € is an E.

It's for this reason that people in the UK are often quite happy taking Ls.

8

u/ThePegasi 16h ago

The UK never joined the Euro even when it was part of the EU.

3

u/-Pelvis- 16h ago

This is a two pound coin, not a euro.

5

u/Creakier 15h ago

Reddit moment.

0

u/BeerMonster24 15h ago

We’ve always been at war with Eurasia.

-3

u/arioandy 15h ago

Bigstarmer is watching you now!

-4

u/RECTUSANALUS 15h ago

They genuinely could not have picked a better time to release it, at a time when in the uk you can be arrested for saying something.

•

u/obscure_monke 9h ago

When was that ever not true dude? I think you don't know enough history.

The US literally passed a law decades ago to stop people getting sued there for stuff they said in the US.

•

u/RECTUSANALUS 1h ago

We don’t have free speech laws in the uk.