Whereas under section 3(1)(a), (b), (cc), (d) and (dd) of the Coinage Act 1971 We have power, with the advice of Our Privy Council, by Proclamation to determine the denomination, the design and dimensions of coins to be made at Our Mint, to determine the weight and composition of coins other than gold coins or coins of silver of Our Maundy money and the remedy to be allowed in making such coins and to determine the percentage of impurities which such coins may contain:

And Whereas under section 3(1)(ff) of the Coinage Act 1971 We have power, with the advice of Our Privy Council, by Proclamation to direct that any coin shall be legal tender for the payment of any amount:

And Whereas it appears to Us desirable to order that, to illustrate the theme of the Mind of Britain, there should be made at Our Mint a coin of the denomination of five pounds in cupro-nickel:

We, therefore, in pursuance of the said section 3(1)(a), (b), (cc), (d), (dd) and (ff), and of all other powers enabling Us in that behalf, do hereby, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, proclaim, direct and ordain as follows:

CUPRO-NICKEL COIN

• 1 (1) A new coin of cupro-nickel of the denomination of five pounds shall be made, being a coin of a standard weight of 28.276 grammes, a standard diameter of 38.608 millimetres, a standard composition of seventy-five per centum copper and twenty-five per centum nickel, and being circular in shape.

(2) In the making of the said cupro-nickel coin a remedy (that is, a variation from the standard weight, diameter or composition specified above) shall be allowed of an amount not exceeding the following, that is to say:

• a a variation from the said standard weight of an amount per coin (measured as the average of a sample of not more than one kilogramme of the coin) of 0.13 grammes;
• b a variation from the said standard diameter of 0.125 millimetres per coin; and
• c a variation from the said standard composition of two per centum copper and two per centum nickel.

(3) The said cupro-nickel coin may contain impurities of three-quarters of one per centum.

(4) The design of the said cupro-nickel coin shall be as follows:

‘For the obverse impression Our effigy with the inscription “ELIZABETH · II · D · G · REG · F · D FIVE POUNDS · 2009”, and for the reverse a depiction of the clock-face of the Palace of Westminster accompanied by the London 2012 logo, printed onto the surface in coloured ink, and a quotation from Walter Bagehot, “Nations touch at their summits”. The coin shall have a graining upon the edge’.

(5) The said cupro-nickel coin shall be legal tender for the payment of any amount in any part of Our United Kingdom.

• 2 This Proclamation shall come into force on the fourteenth day of May Two thousand and nine.

Given at Our Court at Buckingham Palace, this thirteenth day of May in the year of our Lord Two thousand and nine and in the fifty-eighth year of Our Reign.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN