Last year it was Basil Watson’s monument at Waterloo station; this year it’s a 50p coin and a set of postage stamps.
The 75th anniversary of the arrival at Tilbury of the celebrated troop-carrier turned unofficial migrant ship HMT Empire Windrush has prompted the Royal Mint and the Royal Mail to issue some collectable merchandise.
The 50p piece is the standard seven-sided cupro-nickel coin, bearing the King’s head on one side and, on the other, a design of two Windrush-era arrivals standing against a Union flag backdrop. You won’t find it in your change, though: the standard coin costs £11 (£15 including postage) and a version depicting the colours of the flag is £20. SN readers will doubtless be disappointed to learn that the gold proof (ie extra-shiny) version, priced at £1,220, is no longer available.
The design is by Jamaican-born multi-disciplinary artist Valda Jackson, who came to England in 1964. If her name is familiar, that’s because she was shortlisted for the Windrush Monument commission at Waterloo.
Jackson said in a statement: “My work explores the migrant experience and interlocking cultures; I specifically look at identity, isolation and belonging.” She explained that the design, “…is an acknowledgment of the real, lived experience of generations of ordinary working people, and though we may have struggled, and we still struggle in so many ways, we and our descendants are, in fact, at home.”
The coin comes with an illustrated booklet that includes (uncredited) photographs of Mona Baptiste at Tilbury in 1948, a jazz band in 1964, Watson’s Waterloo sculpture, the Windrush Square war memorial and an image of Notting Hill Carnival – which the booklet calls “Europe’s largest street party” – in 2002.
Royal Mint has said that these collectables celebrate the contributions made by those who left the Caribbean 50+ years ago and enriched British life and culture. It is ironic, then, that not so long ago these same people from the Windrush Generation were threatened with deportation under the Home Office’s cruel and ill-conceived ‘hostile environment’ policy. Many victims of the Windrush Scandal are still fighting for some kind of justice, compensation or closure.
The commemorative Windrush 75 coin can be purchased from the Royal Mint shop.
