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Reverse of a 1983 half sovereign

The half sovereign is a British gold coin denominated at one-half of a pound sterling. It was first struck in 1544, but was discontinued after 1604. In 1817, as part of the Great Recoinage, half sovereigns and sovereigns were reintroduced. Until the half sovereign was discontinued as a currency coin, it was struck in most years and circulated widely. In addition to being coined in London, it was struck at the colonial mints in Australia and South Africa. It was replaced in Britain from 1914 by paper currency, and was discontinued in Australia in 1920 and South Africa in 1926. After that, it was struck in the coronation years of 1937 and 1953. It has been struck for sale by the Royal Mint as a collector's piece since 1980, and as a bullion coin since 1982; it does not circulate due to the value of the gold it contains. In addition to the portrait of the reigning monarch, the coin features in most years an image of Saint George and the Dragon, designed by Benedetto Pistrucci. (Full article...)

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In the news

Donald Tusk

The COP28 summit ends with a call to transition away from the use of fossil fuels.
Donald Tusk (pictured) becomes Prime Minister of Poland in the aftermath of the October parliamentary election.
Baldur's Gate 3 wins game of the year at The Game Awards.
At least 17 people are killed as Cyclone Michaung makes landfall in India.
Former president of Mauritania Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is sentenced to prison on charges of corruption.

On this day

December 13: Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day in China (1937)

Beyoncé

1809 – Napoleonic Wars: While transporting supplies to Guadeloupe, French commodore François Roquebert's expedition to the Caribbean captured the British frigate HMS Junon.
1928 – An American in Paris, a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by George Gershwin, premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York.
1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Croatian Army retreated after the failure of Operation Whirlwind, destroying their tanks to avoid their capture.
2013 – Beyoncé (pictured) released her fifth studio album without any prior announcement or promotion; it sold 2.3 million copies before the end of the year.

Francesco Bianchini (b. 1662)
Athanasios Rhousopoulos (d. 1898)
Larry Doby (b. 1923)
Dora Marsden (d. 1960)

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Today's featured picture

A Bézier curve is a parametric curve used in computer graphics and related fields. Related to the Bernstein polynomial, it is named after Pierre Bézier, who used it in the 1960s for designing curves for the bodywork of Renault cars. Other uses include the design of computer fonts and animation. Bézier curves can be combined to form a Bézier spline, or generalized to higher dimensions to form Bézier surfaces. This animation shows a linear Bézier curve, the simplest type, generating a straight line between the points P₀ and P₁. This is equivalent to linear interpolation.

Animation credit: Phil Tregoning

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