2413) Alan Turing, United Kingdom (UK): 60th Anniversary of his passing Away: "Innovation in Science 50 Pence Coin Series": "Enigma machine" - Breaking the Code and "The Imitation Game" (The "Turing Test"): Final 50p (Pence) Coin in the Series from the Royal Mint, UK, celebrates the life and achievements of this all-round genius: Date of Coin issue: 2022:
Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Alan Turing:
A few years ago, before the Chinese Wuhan Virus pandemic (also called - COVID-19) broke out, we had seen the movie - "The Imitation Game" in a movie theatre. Alan Turing's life and achievements were beautifully brought out by the British Actor - Benedict Cumberbatch, leaving a lasting impression on the audience.
In 2022, the Royal Mint, UK has celebrated the man with a remarkable mind with a UK 50p coin available as a gold Proof, silver Proof, silver Proof Piedfort and Brilliant Uncirculated edition.
Recently honoured by the Bank of England by the inclusion of his portrait on a new £50 note, this is the first time the Royal Mint, UK has commemorated Alan Turing on a UK coin.
This 50 Pence Coin from the Royal Mint, UK, recalls the contributions of this Mathematical genius whose efforts led to the breaking of the Enigma Code of the Nazi War machine and saving millions of lives during World War II.
The Reverse of the 50p (Fifty Pence) Coin
A Brief:
A photograph of Alan Turing
With groundbreaking theories and innovative work in the fields of computing, mathematics and science, Alan Turing’s ingenuity and intellect remains revered within public and academic circles.
Estimated to have saved millions of lives by shortening the war, his code-breaking logic applied during the Second World War along with fellow codebreakers serves as an act of intellectual heroism.
In recent years, Turing has become a figurehead for gay rights following his posthumous pardon from Her Majesty The Queen in 2013, which has since led to further pardons to gay men and created what’s become known as ‘Turing’s Law’.
Made for a Remarkable Mind:
Still celebrated for his intellectual genius and unbridled logic more than 60 years after his passing, this is the first time Alan Turing has featured on a UK coin.
His achievements range from formulating groundbreaking theories in the fields of computing, mathematics and biology to ingenious code-breaking during the Second World War.
Born on 23.06.1912 in Maida Vale, London, Alan Turing spent most of his childhood separated from his parents. His father worked in the Indian Civil Service and his mother, whom he remained close with through regular correspondence, insisted that her son was brought up in Britain.
At the age of 13, Turing began his secondary education at Sherborne School in Dorset, where he showed an exceptional aptitude for science and mathematics, frustrating those teachers who expected pupils to focus on classics and scripture.
This didn’t stop him from taking it upon himself to study complex scientific theories, such as relativity, and cultivating a remarkable mind that would later carve an indelible mark in the fields of computing, mathematics and science.
Following the death of his close friend Christopher Morcom at Sherborne School, Turing eschewed collaboration and took a more single-minded approach to his intellectual endeavours.
A Mathematical Marvel:
In 12/1930, Alan Turing received a scholarship to study mathematics at King’s College, Cambridge. Marred by disappointment, he underachieved in his first year maths exam and expressed his bitter disappointment in a letter to Mrs Morcom, the mother of his late friend:
"I suppose you saw that I had only got a 2nd in 1st part of Maths. I can hardly look anyone in the face after it."
By 1934, Turing’s early disappointment would become a distant memory, as he achieved his first major mathematical achievement.
Professor Arthur Eddington (we have seen a movie titled - "Eddington and Einstein"), whose lectures Turing had chosen to attend, posited a fundamental theory to unify quantum theory, gravitation and relativity.
Another problem concerned the relationship of experimental measurements to the actual underlying measure, which Turing was able to establish.
Unbeknown to Turing, the Finnish mathematician Jarl Waldemar Lindeberg had previously found a proof for the problem, known as the "Central Limit Theorem", 22 years earlier.
Nevertheless, the Electors to Fellowships referred a dissertation Turing wrote on the subject for review and one of the reviewers, Mr A.S. Beskovitch, wrote in his report:
"The development of Mr Turing’s method is very much different from that of Lindeberg, which makes me completely confident that the work has been done in a genuine ignorance of Lindeberg’s work. Mr Turing’s proof is somewhat more complicated than the Lindeberg proof, but all the same it is an excellent success and it would be so not only for a beginner but also for a fully developed scientist."
The Basis of Modern Computing:
Turing had a knack for distilling the most abstract mathematical ideas and linking them to the real world where they could have practical use.
Posited by David Hilbert – a mathematics professor working in Göttingen – one idea explored the issue of decidability and putting mathematics into a symbolic form.
Known in German as the "Entscheidungsproblem", Hilbert’s idea sought to find a process for determining the provability of a scientific or theoretical proposition with a definitive yes or no answer.
This aroused Turing’s curiosity and eventually led him to publish a paper on "Computable Numbers" in 1936 – a seminal piece that is now considered the foundation of computer science.
Turing picked apart Hilbert’s plan and came up with the practical concept of a "universal" computing machine, which had a limited range of physical functions but could imitate the behaviour of any single-purpose machine.
In essence, Turing had formulated a basic description of algorithms.
Enigma – Breaking the Code:
During the Second World War, Turing served as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. Ironically, he had joined the "Anti-War Council" a few years before when he was at King’s College.
The fight Turing partook in would become one of logic and intellect, as along with other mathematicians he faced the challenge of cracking the code sent by the Enigma machine used by the Nazis to send cyphered commands to their forces.
Known as a "bomba", the Polish had conceived the idea of a codebreaking machine before the outbreak of the war.
Inspired by the design and machination, Turing and Gordon Welchman created the "Bombe machine", named in tribute to the Poles’ work, which was able to crack Enigma and help sway the war in favour of the Allies.
In 1946, Turing’s contribution to the war effort was officially recognised with an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).
The Imitation Game:
Four years after receiving his OBE, Alan Turing became a Reader at the Computing Laboratory at the University of Manchester.
Following on from where he left off before the Second World War, he turned his focus to an idea that explored the possibility of a computer that could think like a human.
In 1950, he published another famous paper called "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", which put forward a method called the "Imitation Game" – (now known as the "Turing Test").
The method determined a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligence and has had an enduring influence on the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Solving a Biological Puzzle:
The year after his famous paper on AI, Turing published "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" – another formative work but in a different scientific field of study.
The paper presented a theory that suggested a mathematical equation for explaining the chemical interactions that form many of the biological patterns we see in the natural world – such as spots, stripes and flower petals.
By applying mathematics to developmental biology, Turing created an entirely new science. The groundbreaking paper was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 08/1952 and almost 70 years on from its publication, it is still the subject of intense investigation.
Posthumous Justice:
Until 1967, male homosexual activity was illegal in the United Kingdom.
Throughout his life, Alan Turing managed to keep his sexuality largely hidden until a fateful incident in 1952 that led to a criminal conviction of "gross indecency".
The incident involved a burglary, which Turing reported to the police, but the subsequent investigation found he had fabricated part of the story and attention turned to his relationship with a young man linked to the crime, Arnold Murray.
The investigation deduced Turing and Murray had engaged in a sexual relationship yet Murray managed to get off scot-free.
Often the punishment for homosexual offences was imprisonment yet the court ordered Turing to undergo ‘treatment by a duly qualified medical practitioner’. They viewed his sexuality as a mental health condition and the treatment was essentially a form of chemical castration.
In 2013, The Queen issued a posthumous royal pardon to Turing. This gesture prompted ‘Turing’s Law’, as it is now known, which has posthumously pardoned thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted of now abolished sexual offences.
The Coin:
The specification of the Cupro-Nickel Brilliant Uncirculated (BU) Coin are:
Country of issue: United Kingdom (UK); Date/Year: 2022; Coin Series Theme: "Innovation in Science 50p Coin Series"; Coin Theme: Alan Turing - Scientist in the fields of computing, mathematics and science; Denomination/Face Value: 50p (Pence), UK; Metal Composition: Cupro-nickel (CuNi); Weight: 27.30 grams; Diameter/Size: 8.00 mm; Coin Quality: Brilliant Uncirculated (BU)*; Mint: Royal Mint, UK (RM); Designers: Reverse: Matt Dent and Christian Davies, Obverse Jody Clark.
* About the Striking Standard - Brilliant Uncirculated Coin:
Sometimes referred to as ‘BU’, ‘B.U.’, or ‘B.UNC’, Brilliant Uncirculated coins are of a higher standard than circulating and bullion coins. An entry-level collectable, like Proof coins, the dies used to strike Brilliant Uncirculated coins are polished and finished by hand.
The Brilliant Uncirculated blanks are machine-fed and struck twice. As a result, they are produced at a much quicker rate than Proof coins – around 100 per hour. They offer a good level of design detail, but have a lower definition than Proof coins.
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