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D G REG F D — the Latin round the rim, expanded.
Also known as: Latin writing on a coin, Letters round the edge of a coin
British coins carry a heavily abbreviated Latin title that has been shortened over three centuries until almost nothing readable remains. Expanded, it is a claim about the basis of the sovereign's authority, and the abbreviations date the coin.
The abbreviated Latin legend on British coinage: D G for Dei Gratia, by the grace of God; REG or REX for the sovereign; and F D or FID DEF for Fidei Defensor, defender of the faith.
United Kingdom · Contexts: History
Progressively shortened. Eighteenth-century coins spell far more of it out, and how much is abbreviated is a rough dating tool in itself.
The defender-of-the-faith title was granted by Pope Leo X in 1521 for a treatise against Luther, and retained after the break with Rome — so the coin asserts a papal honour that the papacy withdrew.
granted 1521
Capital letters curving round the rim of a coin, heavily abbreviated and separated by small dots or dividing marks.