Suitable for all ages, this is the ideal gift for anybody interested in natural history and Charles Darwin and his life.

Charles Darwin 1809 - 1882
Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 and became one of the most influential men in world history. He qualified as a clergyman in Cambridge but did not take Holy Orders after graduating; his life was to take an entirely different course.

He declared himself as ‘born a naturalist’ and when he was invited to survey the southern coasts of South America aboard HMS Beagle in 1831, he recognised it as ‘the most important event of my life’. The journey took almost five years and he collected huge numbers of specimens, noting similarities as well as distinct differences amongst species depending on their territory. Many more years of research led, in 1859, to the publication of On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection. Flying in the face of common wisdom as well as religious convention, Darwin’s theory brought respect and ridicule in equal measure but was to change the scientific world forever. Darwin died on 19 April 1882 and was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.

The Designer - Suzie Zamit
Suzie originally trained at London College of Fashion in Film/TV/Theatre make-up and prosthetics, and enjoyed a successful career in this field. In 1995 she decided to concentrate on her interest in sculpture and completed a BA Fine Art degree at City and Guilds of London Art School in 1999. During this time she won a travel scholarship to Florence, and an excellence award from Madame Tussauds. She has always been interested in figurative sculpture and became especially drawn to heads, ‘as the face seems to contain the 'essence' of a person’.

While designing the Darwin coin, Suzie’s approach, as sculptor, was figurative. Her immediate idea ‘was to depict Darwin looking back into the past? he dealt with human origins in the Descent of Man published at a later date but it was human evolution that most people associate with Darwin particularly the Victorian cartoons that depict him with the body of a monkey or the walking upright sequence. I decided having Darwin and an ape was the simplest and most recognisable way of saying EVOLUTION’.