Britannia was created by the Romans 2,000 years ago, and she first appeared on British coins in 1672
This disclosure makes a nonsense of Mr Brown’s repeated declarations of his patriotism in the run-up to taking over from Tony Blair.
When The Mail on Sunday first contacted the Government yesterday to confirm the reform, surprised officials doubted it could have been approved at the top levels of the Treasury.
But after extensive behind-the-scenes consultations, they confirmed that it had indeed been sanctioned – by Gordon Brown as Chancellor, shortly before he entered Downing Street last June.
The Queen then rubber-stamped the idea later in the year. But Buckingham Palace would not comment last night on the Monarch’s personal opinion of the change.
The move is a personal embarrassment to Mr Brown, because at the time he made the decision, he was emphasising his sense of “Britishness” as part of efforts to appear a fitting occupant of Downing Street.
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “Britannia has been an enduring symbol of British pride and history.
“It is all too typical of a Government with an inadequate sense of British pride and an ignorance of history to want to do away with such a symbol.”
Historian Andrew Roberts, author of Eminent Churchillians and A History Of The English-Speaking People Since 1900, called for an urgent rethink.
“We constantly see Gordon Brown wrapping himself up in the Union Jack, yet here we find a blatant attempt to erase our history, to allow important symbols to be abolished after 300 years,” he said.
“Britannia is a classic symbol of modern Britain and people care very much about what is on their coins.
“People fight for symbols, for flags, because they represent in a small way the big things that matter to us.