Bermuda - 350th Anniversary - Colony Founding
1959 Silver One Crown 38mm (28.27 grams) 0.925 Silver (0.8410 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 13
ELIAZABETH ◦ II ◦ DEI ◦ GRATIA ◦ REGINA, Crowned bust of Queen Elizabeth II right.
1609.:. BERMUDA.:. 1959 ONE CROWN, Map of islands with ships "Deliverance" and "Patience".

Elizabeth  II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926)  is, and has been since her accession in 1952, Queen of the United Kingdom,  Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Head of the Commonwealth . She is also Queen of  12 countries that have become independent since her accession: Jamaica,  Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint  Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint  Kitts and Nevis.

Elizabeth was born in London to the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth , and was the elder of their two  daughters. She was educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne  on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was  the heir presumptive . She began to undertake public  duties during World War II , serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service . In 1947, she  married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , with whom she  has four children: Charles , Anne , Andrew , and Edward .

Elizabeth's many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland and  reciprocal visits to and from the Pope. She has seen major constitutional  changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation , and the decolonisation of Africa . She has also reigned  through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms . She is the world's oldest reigning  monarch as well as Britain's longest-lived . In 2015, she surpassed the reign  of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria , to become the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning queen regnant in world  history.

Times of personal significance have included the births and marriages of her  children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, her coronation in 1953 , and the celebration of  milestones such as her Silver , Golden and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, and 2012,  respectively. Moments of sadness for her include the death of her father, aged  56; the assassination of Prince Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten ; the breakdown of her  children's marriages in 1992 (her annus horribilis ); the death in 1997 of her  son's former wife, Diana, Princess of Wales ; and the deaths of her  mother and sister in 2002. Elizabeth has occasionally  faced republican sentiments and severe press  criticism of the royal family , but support for the monarchy and  her personal popularity remain high.

Bermuda,  also referred to in legal documents as, fully, "the Bermudas or Somers Isles",  is a British Overseas Territory in the North  Atlantic Ocean, located off the east coast of North America . Its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras , United States , about 1,030 kilometres (640 mi)  to the west-northwest. It is about 1,239 kilometres (770 mi) south of Cape Sable Island , Canada , and 1,538 kilometres (956 mi) north of Puerto Rico . Its capital city is Hamilton .

The first known European explorer to reach Bermuda was  Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez in 1503, after whom the  islands are named. He claimed the apparently uninhabited islands for the Spanish Empire . Paying two visits to the  archipelago, Bermúdez never landed on the islands, but did create a recognisable  map of the archipelago. Shipwrecked Portuguese mariners are now thought to have  been responsible for the 1543 inscription in Portuguese Rock (previously  called Spanish Rock). Subsequent Spanish or other European parties are  believed to have released pigs i93589, which had become feral and abundant on the island by the time  European settlement began. In 1609, the English Virginia Company , which had established Jamestown in Virginia (a term originally applied to all of  the  North American continent) two years earlier,  permanently settled Bermuda in the aftermath of a hurricane, when the crew and  passengers of the Sea Venture steered the ship onto the  surrounding reef to prevent its sinking, then landed ashore.

The island was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until  1614. Its spin-off , the Somers Isles Company , took over in 1615 and  managed the colony until 1684. At that time, the company's charter was revoked,  and the English Crown took over administration. The  islands became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the parliaments of Scotland  and England, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain . After 1949, when Newfoundland became part of Canada, Bermuda was  automatically ranked as the oldest remaining British Overseas Territory. Since  the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, it is the most  populous Territory. Its first capital, St. George's , was established in 1612 and is  the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World.

Bermuda's economy is based on offshore insurance and reinsurance , and tourism , the two largest economic sectors . Bermuda had one of the  world's highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century and  several years beyond. Recently, its economic status has been affected by the  global recession. It has a subtropical climate. Bermuda is the  northernmost point of the Bermuda Triangle , a region of sea in which,  according to  legend , a number of aircraft and surface  vessels have disappeared under supposedly unexplained or mysterious  circumstances. The island is in the hurricane belt and prone to severe weather.  However, it is somewhat protected from the full force of a hurricane by the  coral reef that surrounds the island.