1st June 2012
Jersey issues £100 notes
When Britain and beyond celebrated Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 years on the throne in 2012 – her Diamond Jubilee – Jersey decided to do something special. The States amended a 1959 law that limited the maximum denomination of any currency note it could issue so that it could print a £100 note for the occasion.
The note carried an image of the sovereign that had been commissioned by Jersey several years earlier to mark 800 years since the decision, in 1204, to align itself with the British crown. This portrait, called Equanimity, had been the centrepiece of an exhibition called The Queen: Art and Image. The exhibition, at London’s National Portrait Gallery, included works by Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud, Lord Litchfield and Cecil Beaton.
The text on the note was written in three languages – English, French and Jèrriais – and the notes themselves were legal tender in Jersey. They were sold at face value or, for an additional £5, in a commemorative wallet.
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Other events that occured in June
Victoria College’s first headmaster is born
- William George Henderson was the first headmaster of Victoria College, having been ordained a priest in 1859.
- Read more…
Demilitarisation of Jersey begins
- The British government deemed the Channel Islands too difficult to defend given available resources, so instead evacuated them.
- Read more…
Holiday pioneer Billy Butlin dies in Jersey
- Billy Butlin’s name will forever be tied to a certain type of British holiday. He moved to Jersey later in life, where he died.
- Read more…
Jersey man who made bread from air dies
- Jersey-born Robert Le Rossignol saved the world from starvation when he found a way to quickly make fertiliser.
- Read more…