The Royal Mint has chosen Beatrix Potter's thieving Peter Rabbit as the first character from children's literature ever to appear on a U.K. coin.

    Peter, pictured in the blue jacket that he is forced to abandon in the garden of Mr. McGregor when he is caught stealing vegetables, is captured on a special, colored edition of a 50-pence coin available from last week. The Royal Mint, which described Peter as "the most recognizable of Potter's creations, and one of the most cherished from children's literature," will release uncolored versions of the coin in change later this year.

    Three more of Potter's characters will also be committed to currency later this year, as part of celebrations marking 150 years since the children's author's birth. The images have been created by coin designer Emma Noble, who said it was "amazing to be given the opportunity to work with such famous and treasured literary characters."

    "I wanted to put Beatrix Potter's illustrations to the forefront of my design as they are lovely images and the characters are very well known," said Noble. " I felt they were strong enough to stand alone and I designed them in this way as I thought they would work best for both the colored commemorative and uncolored circulating coins. I really hope people are pleased with them as a set.”

    Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," featuring Peter and his better-behaved siblings Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail, was the first of her stories published, released in 1902 by Frederick Warne & Co. Potter went on to follow it with a series of much-loved stories which remain popular today, from "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin" to "The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck."

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

    流通

    líutōng

    circulate

    be distributed over a wide area

    兄弟姐妹

    xiōngdì jiěmèi

    sibling

    a brother or sister

    彼得兔登上英国钱币

    英国皇家铸币厂将首次把儿童文学中的角色印到硬币上，而这款硬币的主角就是儿童作家碧雅翠丝·波特笔下爱偷东西的彼得兔。

    彼得兔穿着偷吃麦奎格先生花园的蔬菜被发现后弄丢的蓝色夹克，彩色的50便士特别版纪念币从上周开始已经可以买到了。英国皇家铸币厂将彼得兔誉为“波特笔下最知名的角色，儿童文学的瑰宝之一”。今年晚些时候，铸币厂还将推出用于流通的非彩色版彼得兔硬币。

    为庆祝波特诞辰150周年，今年波特笔下还有三位角色将登上英国货币，硬币将由设计师艾玛·诺布尔创作。诺布尔表示，“有机会采用这么著名和值得珍藏的文学角色进行设计真是太棒了”。

    “我的设计将围绕碧雅翠丝·波特的原版插图进行，因为这些插图实在是太可爱了，图中的角色也早已家喻户晓，”诺布尔说，“我觉得它们每一个单独拿出来都是经典，这样设计既适合彩色纪念版的硬币，也适合非彩色的流通款硬币。我真心希望大家喜欢这套硬币。”

    《彼得兔的故事》于1902年由费德里克·沃恩公司出版。这是碧雅翠丝·波特出版的第一本故事书。书中主要讲述了彼得兔和三个姐姐的故事。三个姐姐分别名叫弗洛普茜、默普茜和棉球尾，她们都比彼得兔乖。此后，波特又接着创作了一系列深受喜爱的故事，从《松鼠坚果果的故事》一直到《傻鸭子杰米玛》。这些故事历经百年风靡至今。