This image shows the mock-up of a poster promoting the Festival of Britain Exhibition of Industrial Power held in Glasgow. The guide included a breakdown of the elements that made up each exhibition, along with a series of maps showing the routes around them.

In an essay on the Festival, 17-year-old Michael Frayn characterised it as an enterprise of "the radical middle-classes, the do-gooders; the readers of the News Chronicle, The Guardian, and The Observer; the signers of petitions; the backbone of the B. Its advocacy of Good Design had grown partly out of the standards of utility furniture created during the war ( Gordon Russell, the Director of the CoID, had been Chairman of the Utility Furniture Design Panel) and partly out of the CoID's Britain Can Make It exhibition of 1946. Opening in May 1951 and lasting until that September, the Festival was timed to coincide with the centenary of the Great Exhibition in 1851, but rather than being a world fair it focused entirely on Britain and its achievements and being a beacon for change. Beyond the Dome is the Royal Festival Hall, designed by Leslie Martin, Peter Moro and Robert Matthew. The winning design was by graphic artist Abram Games, who had designed posters for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War.

The graphic designer Richard Littler, creator of Scarfolk, created a satirical poster for the Festival based on the cover of the original 1951 guide, reimagining the profile of the nation's symbolic figurehead Britannia shooting herself in the head. As with most Government sponsored projects the Festival met with controversy (remember the Millennium Dome? Herbert Morrison took charge for the Labour government and decided instead to hold a series of displays about the arts, architecture, science, technology and industrial design, [8] under the title "Festival of Britain 1951". He appointed a Great Exhibition Centenary Committee, consisting of civil servants, who were to define the framework of the Festival and to liaise between government departments and the festival organisation.

Visitors were treated to displays of traditional and contemporary manufacturing and farming techniques. A wet weather pavilion with a stage facing two ways so that performances could take place in the open air. In the post-war period, resources were scarce and designers had to work creatively with the materials available. Barbara Jones and Tom Ingram organised "Black Eyes and Lemonade", an exhibition of British popular and traditional art, in association with the Society for Education in Art and the Arts Council. Construction of the South Bank site opened up a new public space, including a riverside walkway, where previously there had been warehouses and working-class housing.The regular versions have a mintage of just under 2 million, which is definitely on the lower side for a mintage figure. Some prominent members of the Labour government considered the Festival to be a Labour undertaking which would contribute to their future electoral success, and Clement Attlee, the Labour Leader, wrote to Morrison saying that an election in autumn 1951 would enable the Labour Party to benefit from its popularity. Keep reading to learn about these different versions, as well as the commemoration behind the coin and what historical relevance it has.