In the year 2000 Sydney Australia hosted it's first Olympic games since the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
A string of $5 coins were released in a joint RAM/Perth Mint venture each commemorating different aspects of the Olympics.
28 Aluminium bronze five dollar coins were issued featuring different sports of the Olympics, these were each housed in a small plastic card with mintages of 100 000 each.
Other Olympic issues just commemorated Australia - it's flora, fauna and culture. These were 24 silver proof coins available individually or in mini sets of each theme. Interestingly 2 of these coins the 'Festival of dreaming' and 'A sea change' were designed based on original sketches by Nova Peris-Kneebone, our own Aboriginal athlete and artist. There was a complete gold version of this set issued also.
Hundred dollar denomination issues depicted our journey through Sydney 2000. Eight gold coins from journey begins, dedication (2), preparation (2), stadium, achievement - athlete and achievement - torch.
The finale of the Olympic coin program was an impressive $30 99.9% silver proof coin weighing in at 1 kilogram! At the time it was the biggest Olympic coin ever struck at 100 millimetres in diameter and such was a talking piece at the World Money Fair in Basel, Switzerland.
Posted by harrisk at April 9, 2009 10:56 AM
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