coins 20 and 50 cents

Christine made me promise not to clog the blog with currency (I think "SNORE" was her reaction, as in "SNA-UH-OAR"... never realized it had 3 syllables). Hang in there though. Like I said, the $1 coins are pretty exciting.

So... Of we go... $0.20 coins. On the back, the usual old and new queen elizabeth:





Jowls on the newer (aged) queen really apparent. Here's what the normal back of the $0.20 looks like... Platypus...



By the way, looks like I totally got the animals on the 5cent and 10cent pieces wrong. It's not a hedgehog and a peakcock. Rather it's a Echidna and a Lyrebird(!). The lyrebird is quite rare and is only found in Australia. I'll be dipped, learn something new every day!

20 cent pieces have a couple of special years... The design on the front's the same, the tail's different:





These are the two from 2001. In 1901 the federation of Australia was formed and I think each state got its own coin. It was a banner year for commemorative coins. This one's for Southern Australia. The flower is Sturt’s Desert Pea (state flower), the stars are the Southern Cross and the Adelaide Hills are in the background.

The other coin is about Donald Bradman the world's greatest criketer who died in 2001. We tried to understand cricket, we really did, but I think we've just given up on it ("SNA-UH-OAR").

Ok, then there's 2005's 20 cent piece...



60's anniversary of the end of WWII. Meh. 10 years late for the 50th anniversary? Christine is still mad at me for busting our downloading budget when I got about 10 gigabytes of Ken Burns' The War. Great series, can recommend without reservation.

50 cent pieces... Heads... You'll never guess who's on it: 




Tails...Here's the normal tails



It's the Australian coat of arms. There's a whole lot going on there and everything has symbolism. I thought this part was interesting: "the kangaroo and emu were chosen to symbolise a nation moving forward, reflecting a common belief that neither animal can move backwards easily."



Here's 1977's tails. I'm reluctant to declare a favorite, but I think this one is it. It's the 25th anniversary of the start of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. It's like a fruitopia commercial on a coin.



1982 Commonwealth games. It's like the Olympics every 4 years, but only for British colonies.



1994 The year of the family. Totally don't remember that. The upper right is the emblem described so: "The open design is meant to indicate continuity with a hint of uncertainty. The brushstroke, with its open line root, completes an abstract symbol representing the complexity of the family."



1998 Discovery of the bass strait by George Bass and Matthew Flinders. It's the water between Australia and Tasmania. Flinders' name is on pretty much everything here, streets, buildings, etc. Never hear about Bass.



This one is 2001, again that 100 year anniversary of the federation where each state has its own coin. This one is New South Wales.



This one's 2001 again too, but this is just a different version of the coat of arms, not really tied to any state. They seem to get a little uptight about variations on logos and such, which is a bit of a shame. The Bureau of Meteorology  has to use that as their emblem. They used to have a swirling hurricane logo, which I think is more recognizable from a distance, but there was a kerfluffle that forced them to do away with it.



2002... Windmill. Oookaay? Moving on...



2005 The commonwealth games again, this time in Melbourne. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on here with the animals. I guess it's saying that humans have the spirit of animals in sport (i.e. jumping, kangaroo, swimming, platypus). The lady with a whip and the crane though, that one's lost on me.

Well there it is... Neat!

Tom