A keenly awaited session was held at our August meeting where one of our members presented an amazing array finely crafted and colourful medallions.
Medallions can be loosely described as special minted coin like objects created to document a significant world or country event. They are not legal tender and there is no limited mintage. We saw medallions cast in silver and gold plated, commemorating milestones of British Royalty, Twin Towers 9/11 attack, 1993 Ashes Cricket tour, Beaconsfield Mine Disaster, Port Arthur massacre and Centenary of RAAF 1921 to 2021 to name a few.
Not only did we get to view and handle the medallions, but we were also given some interesting facts surrounding the medallions and their history.
While our group is called Coin Collectors with all things coins being our focus, I have expanded our area of interest to include tokens and medallions. A further new focus is the examination of legal tender bank notes. This was our first session with many of our members bringing along both Australian and overseas notes.
Australian bank notes were first printed in 1913-14. All legal tender note printing in Australia is undertaken by Note Printing Australia (NPA) based at Craigieburn on the northern outskirts of Melbourne. NPA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of Australia. Bank notes have many interesting features including anti counterfeit technology, notable history captured on notes of different eras. We will explore some of these features in future sessions.
Keep noodling...
Doug Smith
While our group is called Coin Collectors with all things coins being our focus, I have expanded our area of interest to include tokens and medallions. A further new focus is the examination of legal tender bank notes. This was our first session with many of our members bringing along both Australian and overseas notes.
Australian bank notes were first printed in 1913-14. All legal tender note printing in Australia is undertaken by Note Printing Australia (NPA) based at Craigieburn on the northern outskirts of Melbourne. NPA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of Australia. Bank notes have many interesting features including anti counterfeit technology, notable history captured on notes of different eras. We will explore some of these features in future sessions.
Keep noodling...
Doug Smith
