"All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation."

John Adams - Letter to Thomas Jefferson - 1787

Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana Francis Spencer was born on 1 July 1961, the daughter of Viscount Althorp, so she was known by the courtesy title The Hon. Diana Spencer (from 1975 Lady Diana Spencer). She did adequately in school and became a kindergarten teacher. Her elder sister Lady Sarah Spencer was a friend of the Prince of Wales, and was one of many romantically linked with him. Charles was over thirty and needed a good, reliable wife. He chose Diana, and they were married in St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July 1981.

From this point she was known officially by the style H.R.H. The Princess of Wales, and popularly as "Di", "Princess Di", or "Princess Diana". Their marriage produced two children, Prince William and Prince Harry. The marriage was predictably treated as a fairytale by the sentimental end of the population, and this very shy, young, and inexperienced woman became one of the most famous and closely-observed people in the world. As the public learned of her hairstyles and charities, they also learned rumours of her bulimia, suicide attempts, and affairs, and of Charles's long-standing affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. For a long time such things were officially ignored, but the breakdown of the marriage became so apparent that it led to separation in 1992. In a 1995 interview with Martin Bashir on the television programme Panorama she confirmed in a casually coded way that both had been having affairs. If her marriage was to end and she could not be queen, she said she wanted to be thought of as "Queen of Hearts".

There had been effectively two rival royal households, with great antagonism between the Charles and Diana camps, and separation only formalized it. With the inevitable divorce in 1996 came the unprecedented problem of how to fit such a princess or ex-princess into the Royal Family. The style of Diana, Princess of Wales was created for her and she continued to undertake substantial royal and charitable commitments. Now much older and more experienced, she seemed to flower and become strong as she became her own woman. What was unthinkable back in 1981 was that she would become a feminist role model and icon, but she did. She now put enormous energy into supporting the victims of AIDS, of leprosy, of land mines, and other causes far removed from the polite charities more commonly associated with royalty.

On the early hours of 31 August 1997 she and her partner Dodi Fayed died in a car accident in Paris, chased by paparazzi. The mourning that engulfed the nation and the world was on a scale unlikely anything before, symbolized by her home at Kensington Palace being surrounded by a huge sea of floral tributes. The funeral was broadcast live to more or less everywhere in the world. The Royal Family suffered severe damage from their perceived neglect of her.

Childhood: The Hon. Diana Spencer

She was born at an estate in Norfolk called Park House, where her parents lived. Her father, known as Viscount Althorp, was the son of Earl Spencer and had been an equerry to the King from 1950, and to the present Queen until 1954. In that year he married the Hon. Mrs Shand-Kydd, and they had four children: Diana had two elder sisters Sarah and Jane and a younger brother Charles. Park House was near the royal estate of Sandringham, so the Spencers often mixed with the royal family. Her parents separated in 1967 and divorced in 1969, with Diana continuing to live with her father.

Youth: Lady Diana Spencer

In 1975 her grandfather Lord Spencer died, her father succeeding to the title and to the ancestral estate of Althorp (which the family traditionally pronounce All-tr'p) in Northamptonshire. Now the daughter of an earl, she gained the courtesy title of 'Lady' in place of her former 'The Honourable'. They moved to Althorp, though since the previous year Diana had been a boarder at a school in Kent, so it was not much of a home. As her family estate it is nevertheless her final resting place.

In 1977-8 she was at a Swiss finishing school, and on returning to England worked as a nanny and a kindergarten teacher in London. Her engagement to Charles was announced on 24 February 1981.

Marriage: H.R.H. The Princess of Wales

The marriage of Charles and Diana, televised across the world, was one of the last of the great celebratory events of royalty. After Diana and her impact no-one can see the Royal Family in the same innocent light, or with unquestioning acceptance. Her wedding gown, with its enormous train, was designed by the Emanuels and became a famous image in its own right. One of the hymns played was her favourite, "I Vow to Thee, My Country", which was also used at her funeral.

William was born on 21 June 1982 and Henry on 15 September 1984. The Waleses lived at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire with London apartments in Kensington Palace. After their separation Diana stayed in that Palace and Charles made his London home in St James's Palace.

Naturally they toured overseas a lot. Her first official overseas duty on her own was representing Britain at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco. They attended the enthronement of Emperor Akihito together. In a visit to India the strain of the marriage was obvious: a famous picture showed Diana alone and miserable outside the Taj Mahal.

As a working member of the Royal Family she had a huge number of honorary appointments as heads of charities, military units, and other organizations. Her popularity made a huge difference to charities she supported. After the separation she relinquished all her military posts and reluctantly cut down her charities to a small number of those most important to her. These were Centrepoint (for the homeless), the English National Ballet, the Leprosy Mission, the National Aids Trust, the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, and the Royal Marsden Hospital.

For part of this time she had been having one or more love affairs. While she was not quite explicit about them, even in her manipulative Panorama interview, there was a rumour that one Major James Hewitt had been a lover. This was encouraged by publication in an Australian magazine of an alleged recording of a mobile phone conversation between them, in which he called her by the nickname Squidgy. Later the cad Hewitt was vilified when he went into print claiming to have been her lover.

Independent: Diana, Princess of Wales

The divorce became final on 28 August 1996. She acquired her new title, but was deprived of the style "Her Royal Highness", a point much criticized for pettiness. Although there were strong feelings on both sides, national sympathy was probably increasingly for Diana in her later years, and the "old" royal family came off badly in comparison.

Out went the lost waif look, and she seemed more vibrant and in control. On her tours in Britain and the world she reached out to people, even the least fortunate, in a very public way: she held the hands of lepers, she embraced people with AIDS, and in her last year she went out into minefields in Angola and Bosnia as part of her campaign to have them declared illegal. She did not quite live to see the success of this campaign and the Nobel Peace Prize for the organization that achieved it.

Her friendship with Dodi Fayed, playboy son of the eccentric Egyptian millionaire and gadfly Mohammed Fayed, led to huge interest by paparazzi, like everything else she did; and after her death when it became impossible to confirm anything it led to rumours of engagement, pregnancy, and MI5 plots to prevent a Muslim becoming stepfather of the future king.

In the late evening of 30 August 1997 they left their Paris hotel with a British bodyguard and a French driver who was apparently stoked up on drink, drugs, or both. To get away from the paparazzi they raced at high speed through the tunnel under the Pont de l'Alma, but crashed. Diana was taken to La Pitié Salpétrière Hospital for emergency surgery but at about 3 a.m. she was declared dead. Dodi and the driver also died.

Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales died in Paris on 31 August 1997. The Prince of Wales and her two sisters Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale flew to Paris and returned with her body to RAF Northolt in London. Pallbearers of the Queen's Fleet Colour Squadron carried her in a coffin covered in the Royal Standard. Amid mourning unparalleled in history, a state funeral was arranged for Saturday, 6 September 1997, in Westminster Abbey, at 11 a.m. Five hundred representatives of charities were invited, to commemorate the People's Princess. Several million people watched the service in Hyde Park over large screens, and virtually everywhere in the world it was broadcast live to the exclusion of all else. The nation stopped. At 9.13 a.m. on a beautiful Saturday morning Diana's coffin, draped in the Royal Standard and bearing two wreaths, one of white lilies from her Spencer family, and one of white roses accompanied by a card saying "MUMMY", left Kensington Palace borne on a gun carriage accompanied by horses and men of the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, and men of the First Battalion Welsh Guards, who would act as pallbearers. As it became visible entering Kensington Road a horrified keening broke out and fled across the crowd. The Tenor Bell of Westminster Abbey tolled, half muffled, once per minute, as the procession crawled through London. As it passed Buckingham Palace, the Queen bowed her head and all the Royal Family stood there to mourn her. For the first time ever, the British national flag was raised over the home of Britain's monarch. It reached the top of the flagstaff, then was lowered to half mast, to allow Death's invisible banner to fly above it. The cortege arrived at the Great West Door of the Abbey at 10.55. The Welsh Guards removed their bearskins and formed a party of pallbearers. The bell began to ring more frequently. The organ music began. An eyewitness at the event reported this program: Prelude by William Harris (1883-1973) The National Anthem Diana's coffin entered the Abbey and stopped. All rose, there and out in Hyde Park where we sat as if for a picnic, and all of us, millions and millions of us, sang God Save the Queen. The Sentences As the cortege preceded by the Collegiate body moved towards the Quire and Sacrarium, the Choir sang passages from the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, which have been used at every royal funeral since that of Charles II. The Bidding spoken by Dr Wesley Carr, Dean of Westminster I Vow to Thee, My Country Diana's favourite hymn, sung at her wedding; music by Gustav Holst. If I should die A poem by A. Price Hughes, traditionally read at Spencer family funerals, read today by her sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale. Libera Me The BBC Singers and Lynne Dawson sang this from the Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi. A favourite piece of music of Diana's. Time is too slow A short poem, another Spencer family favourite, read by her other sister Jane. It only lasts a few seconds but Jane's voice is spookily like Diana's. The King of Love My Shepherd Is Hymn, by J.B. Dykes (1823-1876) and H.W. Baker (1821-1877), from Psalm 23. The Prime Minister Tony Blair read 1 Corinthians 13, "Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels..."; the canonical New Testament definition of love. He was criticized later for being stiff and theatrical. Candle in the Wind Sung by Elton John, a revision of his song about Marilyn Monroe. For many people this, the presence of popular art amid the ancient ceremonial of a royal funeral, was the defining moment. The Tribute Diana's brother Earl Spencer delivered a speech of eulogy that is burned upon the minds of everyone who lived through that time. "I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock...". He attacks the Royal Family, he attacks tabloids, he says don't canonize her. Towards the far end of the speech when he talks about William and Harry he loses control and weeps as he speaks. When he concludes, the crowds of millions outside applaud him. Inside the Abbey the applause is taken up by everyone, everyone except the stiff, frozen, isolated Royal Family. Make me a channel of your peace Hymn of St Francis of Assisi The Prayers by Dr George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Air from County Derry The Lord's Prayer The Blessing Cwm Rhondda Hymn, first line "Guide me O thou great Redeemer", anthem of the crowds at Cardiff Arms Park, where Diana as Princess of Wales attended the rugby. The Commendation by the Dean Alleluia Music of John Tavener, combining the Greek Orthodox liturgy with the lines from Hamlet, "May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest". While this is performed the cortege is moved out of the church. At the half-way point, five minutes into the piece, the music and the bells go silent. A minute's silence is observed. Diana, Princess of Wales left Westminster Abbey, was taken up Oxford Street, onto the M1, was taken in procession out of London into Northamptonshire, to Althorp near the village of Great Brington, to the Spencer family estate. She was buried on an island on a lake. As the radio commentator Paul Harvey would say, "and that is the rest of the story."

This particular medallion is a mystery. I purchased this item from the Australian eBay web site years ago, and I have not been able to establish the maker or the mint where it originated. I did not find a reference at the Perth Mint.

The winning bidder will receive this item in the original vinyl coin flip and plastic capsule with the printed card that claims a mintage of 10,000 units.

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"The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution."

John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father - February 13, 1818