Englert gets his own coin

Last year Englert, together with Peter Higgs from Britain, was awarded the Nobel prize for physics for the theory surrounding the Higgs-Boson-particle, which explains why elementary particles have mass. As a reaction Englert said he was touched that the image of Robert Brout, his late colleague and fellow founder of the theory, was also on the coin.

François Englert is the first living person not from the Belgian dynasty to get his own coin. The first silver coins of 5 euro were struck by Englert himself.
 
One side of the coin bears the portrait of Englert and the profile of the American-Belgian scientist Robert Brout, who died in 2011. The background is a stylised representation of imaginary B.E.H.-traces in a particle collision. "The engraving B.E.H.BOSON, the names of the scientists and the dates 1964 and 2014 complete the graphic composition", states the FPS Financial representative. The other side bears the usual elements such as the nominal value and the trilingual country description. The coin is packaged in an illustrated folder with a summary made by Englert himself about the discovery of the B.E.H.-boson (or the internationally more accessible 'Higgsboson').

B.E.H. stands for Brout, Englert and the British scientist Peter Higgs. In 1964 Brout and Englert first postulated with Higgs at around the same time about the existence of the particle, that gives mass to all other particles. In 2012 the theory was confirmed by the discovery of a new elementary particle in the European centre for nuclear research, CERN, that was almost certainly the so-called Higgsboson.

The coin may be ordered by post or fax at the Royal Mint of Belgium, or via the website www.europemint.eu.