Making the Australian Geographic icon coin
6 February 2015
Credit: Nick Cubbin/Australian Geographic
For our 100th issue in October 2010, we invited celebrated Sydney artist Jim Tsinganos to weave a list of 100 national icons into a painting that would artfully incorporate all our true blue Australian emblems into a single image. In late 2013, the icons poster was spotted by a team of coin developers at the Australian Mint, led by creative director Frederica Heacock, who were working towards a new collectors’ coin that would reflect Aussie culture. Rendering a large and detailed image onto a 38mm coin while remaining faithful to the original idea proved a challenge. The coin set has been christened Distinctly Australian and was launched on Australia Day this year. There are only 30,000 available.
