There can surely be few British households that have not received notification from that champion of the single European currency, our Chancellor of the Exchequer, of the issue of a new £5 coin in May 2002, ostensibly to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne.

It will not have escaped the notice of those accustomed to examining such items in detail that, in addition to the customary inscription on the coin, the following is to appear: "Amor populi praesidium reg".

Well-versed in Latin I certainly am not, but the Oxford dictionary discloses that the word Praesidium means "A standing executive committee in a Communist country, especially in the USSR".

Students of Marxism-Leninism and others who have already made the connection between the former Soviet Union and the self-styled European Union will rightly feel vindicated, for there can surely be no doubt as to the new coin's architects and the pro-EU propaganda value.

While the coin is described as legal tender, its issue will be in uncomfortably close proximity to the imposition on Britain of the dreaded single European currency to which Mr Blair and his chancellor are passionately wed.

Still, like the Queen, whom our one-time prime minister John Major branded a mere citizen of the European Union, the coin will undoubtedly find a place amid the esoteric memorabilia of a once-proud and independent nation called Great Britain.

-Donald Creighton, Stone Cross, Pevensey