00:01Of course it's a very exciting moment for us to celebrate 200 years of
00:05conservation, education and science. We welcome over a million people to London
00:12Zoo and this amazing coin behind us is a representation of everything we do for
00:17the community. Well of course it is 200 pence which is a nice link but we're
00:23really proud to be working with the Royal Mint because it's such a culturally
00:27important organization and of course money reaches everybody in society and
00:31we'll remind them about our conservation and education work. I mean there are
00:36classic examples of the work we do with endangered or extinct in the wild species.
00:42So we start with the Partular Snail from Polynesia. It's essentially extinct in the
00:47wild but we've been able to reintroduce following a breeding program which is
00:52really great to be able to take species back into the wild. The dove again
00:56is very much endangered because of conflicts with the environment so we've
01:02been able to reintroduce that species and our dramatic Sumatran tigers there's
01:07only about three or four hundred in the wild so it's a representation of the work
01:12we do to retain magnificent species. So it's great to have a coin which shows all
01:17three in the same place. Founded in 1826 by Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles for the advancement
01:26of zoological science, the Zoological Society of London or ZSL operates across more than
01:3370 countries as it works to help restore natural habitats, protect fressened species and educate
01:40conservationists. The coin became available to purchase on Tuesday morning with a portion
01:47of the net proceeds from sales to be donated to the ZSL.
01:51So we're here at London Zoo today to unveil a new UK £2 coin that's been issued to celebrate
01:57the bicentenary of ZSL. So the bicentenary is a really momentous occasion so it felt right
02:02that we marked it in a meaningful way and there's so many similarities between our organisations
02:07in terms of our heritage and our desire to have a lasting positive impact on the world
02:11so it made sense to work together but also there's a royal connection here so His Majesty the
02:17King is actually patron of ZSL but he also features on all of our coins. So the design
02:22process is really collaborative and we wanted to make sure that we showed not just striking
02:25images of the animals but species that were really important to ZSL and their conservation
02:29mission. The intricacy involved in the design required a lot of craftsmanship from our engravers
02:34where you see the detail of the tiger's fur to the feathers on the Socorro dove. So the
02:39Royal Mint has a long history of marking important occasions like this for organisations
02:44and causes that are really important worldwide so 200 years felt like the perfect moment to
02:48do this and we really hope that it makes people remember and feel supportive of the cause and
02:53the work that ZSL are doing.
