The Royal Mint, a government-owned mint that produces currency coins for the United Kingdom, has dropped its plans to commemorate author Enid Blyton by issuing a coin, due to her “racist, sexist and homophobic” views, The Independent reported on Tuesday. The Royal Mint had planned to engrave Blyton’s face on a 50 pence coin.
However, members of the mint said the creator of The Famous Five, Noddy and The Secret Seven was “a racist, sexist, homophobe and not a very well-regarded writer”, The Mail Online reported. The coin would have been released in November 2019 to commemorate the author’s 50th death anniversary.
“The point of the advisory committee is to ensure that themes commemorated on UK coins are varied, inclusive and represent the most significant events in our history,” a spokesperson for the Royal Mint said. “For these reasons not every event will progress to a UK coin.”
British television presenter Richard Madeley lashed out at the Royal Mint. “It seems to me that if you were to draw a line in the year say 1955 and go backwards from there you could pretty much pick up anybody based on our modern values,” he said. “There are social lines that have changed and you can’t judge people by the standards of today, so actually I think personally to call Enid Blyton homophobic is ridiculous.”
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