29/11/2002
New South Wales artist, Jeanette Timbery's design for an Australian collector coin has been awarded an international design trophy as the world's 'Best Crown coin' (40mm diameter coin). An international panel of judges viewed coin designs from around the world before choosing the Australian coin as the winner in its category.
The aboriginal artist designed the Kangaroo specially for the Mint's 2001 dated pure silver collector coin, giving it an aboriginal interpretation. The coin has proved to be very popular with Australian collectors and is the most popular of the Mint's coins amongst overseas collectors.
The 2001 dated coin is part of a long running series, which started in 1993 and has annually had a different image of a Kangaroo as the central feature of the coin's design. The coin featured an aboriginal design of a Kangaroo for the first time in 2001. The Mint's engravers worked with Jeanette's design to transfer the aboriginal image, in dot painting style, onto a coin. The success of this collaboration is now there for everyone to see with the announcement of this international award.
Dr Vivienne Thom, the Controller of the Royal Australian Mint, said the award was an opportunity to display some of Australia's indigenous talent to fellow Australians and to the world and it was also wonderful for Australia to have a coin chosen to be the best in the world in its class.
The Mint has continued with the Aboriginal theme for 2002 with a design by Western Australian aboriginal artist Mark Nodea and the design for 2003 is by Victorian Aboriginal artist, Ray Thomas.
We might be 'down under' but when it comes to coin design and production, Australia is certainly 'on top', said the Controller.
| Coin | Description | Download |
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Silver Kangaroo 2100 x 2100 pixel JPG |
JPG 1.36MB (Zip) |