Monday, December 10, 2007

Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Commemorative Fifty Cent Coin

Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Commemorative Fifty Cent Coin

The Royal Australian Mint enjoys printing commemorative fifty cent coins, among others. If there is a special occasion they will change the design to honour that event. Last year Melbourne hosted the 18th Commonwealth Games. Accordingly, the Mint struck a special fifty cent coin.

I was having a look at one such coin last night and a few strange thoughts, nothing strange about that you may say, popped into my head. If a foreigner saw this coin they may wonder what the design means, as did I.

The top left hand corner seems to indicate that emu racing was a Commonwealth Games event. I haven't found any official results for this race however. On the right just above the centre it looks like a frog took part in the pole vault. On the right at the bottom is depicted a participant in the sit-down-pretending-you're-riding-a-motorbike-for-the-longest-time race. Or was that long jumping against the native kangaroo, pictured above? Swimming against the platypus was an easier event for the human participants as the platypus scoured through rocks at the bottom of the pool foraging for food as it went. And lastly, brolga whipping, which was a crowd favourite, on the left hand side in the centre.

2 comments:

Susan Ham said...

I dunno who has the job of designing these things, but they are probably over paid, 'Blind Freddy' could do a better job!

Anonymous said...

They could use a better design and colors. Annette