The phrase "D.G. Regina" on the Canadian $2 dollar coin; what does it mean?
Sunday, April 4th, 2010 at
1:05 pm
I live in Detroit, USA (right on the border from Windsor, ON, Canada) and I make frequent trips across the Detroit River to Canada usually exchanging US currency for Canadian currency. I always see the phrase "D.G. Regina" on the "tooney" and I am curious to find out what it actually means. Please help me my fellow northern neighbors- OOPPS!! I mean "neighbours" !
Tagged with: Canada • Canadian Currency • detroit river • detroit usa • frequent trips • neighbours • northern neighbors • phrase • Regina • windsor
Filed under: Canadian Coins
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D. G. is the abbreviation for Dei Gratia, Latin for "by the grace of God."
Regina is Latin for "queen".
So it means "Queen by the grace of God" (word order is very flexible in Latin).
From 1953-1965 the coins actually had "dei gratia" spelled out.
When George VI was in power, the coins used to say "Georgius VI dei gratia rex" (George VI, king by the grade of God).
By the grace of God Queen
D G is Latin for Dei Gratia
Regina is "queen"
"By the grace of God, Queen" (Elizabeth)