2014 50c Uncirculated Coin Australia at War - Gallipoli Campaign

$18.95

Description
 

2014 50c Uncirculated Coin Australia at War - Gallipoli Campaign

The term ’Anzac’ is forever entwined with the Gallipoli Campaign, where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps fought side-by-side. The shared qualities of courage, mateship and honour displayed on the shores and foothills of Gallipoli, forged the Anzac legend. We commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign with this beautiful and memorable coin.

HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE
On 25 April 1915, Australian and New Zealand troops came ashore on Turkey’s Gallipoli peninsula as part of a wider British effort to seize control of the Dardanelles straits. After the landing, the fighting ground to a stalemate, with Turkish forces holding the ridges of the precipitous terrain for the entire eight-month campaign.

The brutal and intense battles the Anzacs fought on Gallipoli were defining actions for the newly federated nation. For a century, the Anzac spirit has endured as the aspirational ideal of service, mateship and sacrifice for all Australians.

“It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of mateship and the demands of necessity,”
The Honourable Mr Paul Keating, 1993.

FEATURES AND DESIGN
• Part of the Royal Australian Mint’s Official Anzac Centenary Coin Program and the Australia at War Program
• A fitting tribute to commemorate a defining anniversary in Australian history
• The reverse design features an Australian soldier and a representation of landing boats, over a backdrop of a map of the Dardanelles
• Reverse designed by award-winning Royal Australian Mint coin designer Wojciech Pietranik
• Obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II sculpted by Ian Rank-Broadley
• Australian legal tender