Coin tribute to Orwell and 1984

75TH ANNIVERSARY OF AUTHOR AND FORMER M.E.N. JOURNALIST'S DEATH

- VICKY SHAW

WHEN he worked as a journalist at the Manchester Evening News, George Orwell complained about his eight guineas a week wages.

Now the author of 1984, The Road to Wigan Pier and Animal Farm is to be celebrated in money form - with a new £2 coin design.

Released to mark 75 years since the author's death, the reverse or tails design of the Royal Mint coin pays tribute to 1984, a dystopian novel centred around the character of Winston Smith, who lives in a society restricted by totalitarian rule and mass surveillance.

Coin artist Henry Gray created what appears to be an eye but is a camera lens at the centre of the design.