London
AP
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A commemorative coin that includes the picture of an eye fixed and the inscription “Big Brother is watching you” is being launched to pay tribute to “Nineteen Eighty-four” creator George Orwell and mark his death 75 years ago.
The £2 ($2.40) coin depicts what seems to be an eye fixed however is a digital camera lens, and the coin’s edge is inscribed with one other quote from Orwell’s dystopian novel: “There was truth and there was untruth.”
Coinage artist Henry Gray mentioned the theme of totalitarianism was central to his design.
“With phones and cameras being everywhere in your house, and being listened to by advertisers on your phone, you are really aware of how you’re being surveyed — and that’s what ‘1984’ is all about,” he mentioned.
“That’s why the eye (in the design) isn’t a realistic eye. It doesn’t have eyelashes and things like that because I wanted it to be monocular. It’s almost like a camera lens staring at you all the time, unblinking.”
The novel, set in a fictional future, depicts civil servant Winston Smith’s secret insurrection towards a totalitarian authorities and its chief, Big Brother.
Orwell, who additionally wrote the political fable “Animal Farm,” died in a London hospital at age 46 on January 21, 1950, a couple of months after “Nineteen Eighty-four” was printed.
Britain’s Royal Mint mentioned the collector’s coin shall be launched on Wednesday with costs ranging from £17.50 every.
Other literary figures who’ve been commemorated on £2 cash embody William Shakespeare, Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien.