Perth Mint Australian Yongka 2023 2 oz Silver Antiqued Coloured Coin

This incredible 2oz antiqued coloured silver coin portraying an original painting of a yongka (kangaroo) bounding through green grass and ochre rocks of the boodja (lands of the Nyoongar nation), with the orange, brown and yellow KattaMorda (Darling Range) in the background. Overhead, the gradually darkening evening sky is portrayed in turquoise, blue and black dots, each representing a djinda (star).

Aboriginal people have honoured kangaroos in art for millennia. Australia’s oldest known rock art is a 17,000-year-old painting of a kangaroo in the north-west Kimberley region. Continuing the tradition, proud Whadjuk-Yuet-Ballardong artist Kevin Bynder’s second coin design for The Perth Mint is from an original coloured painting of a kangaroo in his native Western Australia.

A proud Whadjuk-Yuet-Ballardong man, Kevin Bynder is a passionate artist and teacher whose diverse portfolio of vibrant and striking works includes many Indigenous guernsey and shirt designs for high-profile sporting franchises, as well as murals in both public and private spaces in and around Perth. Kevin’s works are inspired by Western Australia’s natural environment and reflect the history and knowledge of his people who have lived on Nyoongar country for tens of thousands of years.