Australia 2010 Australia Day 50c Proof in Capsule
Celebrating Australia Day in 2010 the Royal Australian Mint in collaboration with the Australia Day Council has released a commemorative cupro-nickel 50c coin into circulation. With a minimum of 5 million coins planned to enter circulation, expect to find one of these in your change at the shops any day now.
It wasn't until as recently as 1994 that the whole of Australia has consistently celebrated Australia Day on the 26th of January as a public holiday. It was on the 26th January 1788 that The First Fleet from England landed at Sydney Cove and raised the Union Jack founding the Colony of New South Wales. Whilst not always called Australia Day, the 26th of January has historically been used for celebrations and commemorations. It has been known as Foundation Day, Anniversary Day and also Invasion Day.
In today's society Australia Day is a day to celebrate being Australian and what it means to be Australian. The Day is intended to bring all our diverse cultures together and remember our Aboriginal heritage to be proud Australians. Capturing this theme for Australia Day 2010 is this new dodecagonal 50c which tells us to "Celebrate What's Great" and come together to reflect on the past, present and future. The coin features a map of Australia made of ribbons with proud Australians young and old banded together by these ribbons. "50" is depicted inside the map with "Celebrate What's Great Australia Day" as the legend around the map.
The reverse design is sculpted by RAM designer Vladimir Gottwald, it's obverse the standard Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. As well as being found in circulation this coin is also being released in RAM wrappered commemorative mint rolls for $19.95. It is also being released in a selectively gold plated silver proof version in a plush case for $85. The selectively gold plated proof (seen above) features the map of Australia in gold plate and a mintage of just 10,000 coins.
The RAM have produced a short clip to view these proof coins in production. This clip can be seen on their website. (note: your speakers aren't broken, there's no sound!)
Posted by harrisk at January 22, 2010 4:03 PM
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