Niue 2014 Mawson\'s 1911-1914 Antarctic Expedition 5 Oz Pure Silver $10 Proof
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Niue 2014 Mawson\'s 1911-1914 Antarctic Expedition 5 Oz Pure Silver $10 Proof:
$399.95
CommemorateSir Douglas Mawson\'s Antarctic expedition of triumph and tragedywith this huge,ULTRA LOW MINTAGE (only 500), high relief 5 ounce pure silver proof,numbered on the edge with its unique serialnumber!
PRE-SALE OFFER -This item has just been announced and will ship as soon as it arrives from the Mint.
We don\'t merely like thiscoin, we LOVE this beauty - and here\'s why!
• Tremendously low mintage - only 500!
• Stunningly engraved design features two differentscenes of Sir Douglas Mawson\'s ill-fate expedition:
his [link removed by ], SY Aurora, their [link removed by ] teams, and their base camp!
• HUGE size - [link removed by ] ounces pure silver, 65 mm in diameter!
• [link removed by ] relief that looks event better than in the pictures!
• Each coin is individually numbered on the edge(matches certificate number), making each unique!
• Each coin is displayed in a handsome,luxurious, highly polished solid wood presentation case with [link removed by ] Proof,released earlier this year, his vaulted well beyond the $1000 mark!Similarly, this giant, high relief beauty is also struck by PAMP inSwitzerland; features an unique edge serial number; and has alreadysold out at the Mint! Get yours now, before its price likewise climbsinto the stratosphere!Neverin history has there been such a story of perseverance and survivalagainstthe odds as that of Sir Douglas Mawson. Unlike SirErnest Shackleton\'s expedition, whose own tale of Antarctic misfortuneand triumphrivals the Aussie\'s, Mawson was the sole survivor of his own ill-fatedexpedition.This silver proof isminted in [link removed by ] relief!, to more dramatically depict Mawson\'s steam sailingship, the SY Aurora, as wellas the unfortunate other members of his team, their base camp, andtheir [link removed by ] dog teams. Struckfrom a HUGE [link removed by ] ounces of .999 pure silver, and spanning amassive 65 mm in diameter (nearly 3 inches!), this imposing coinrepresents an appropriate and commanding tribute to this intrepid [link removed by ]explorer. Each coin is encapsulatedand displayed in a highly polished, wooden presentation caseaccompanied by a full-color, numbered certificate - and each coin isindividuallynumbered on the edge, making each truly unique! With a ridiculously lowmintageof just 500 coins, these impressive gems are already sold out at theMint!The South Magnetic Pole and ItsDiscovery
The South Magnetic Pole is the point on the Earth\'s surface in theSouthern Hemisphere where the direction of the Earth\'s magnetic fieldis oriented vertically upwards. Because of the field\'s constant drift,the location of the South Magnetic Pole moves constantly. Currently itis in the Southern Ocean off of Wilkes Land, close to the AustralianAntarctic Territory.However, for much of the 20th century, the South Magnetic Pole lay onthe Antarctic continent itself. The first explorers the reach thiselusive goal were part of the from Sir ErnestShackleton\'s1907-1909 British Antarctic Expedition (the NimrodExpedition). Following an exhausting and harrowing journey by sledge,Australian scientists T.W. Edgeworth David and Douglas Mawson, togetherwith Scottish doctor Alistair Forbes Mackay, reached the vicinity ofthe South Magnetic Pole on 16 January 1909. Mawson, Australia\'s mostfamous Antarctic explorer, was responsible for the magneticobservations and the cartographic work. As famous as Mawson become asthe discoverer of the South Magnetic Pole, he would soon go on toworldwide fame for his survival in Antarctica against all odds. Read on!\"It\'sDead Easy to Die; It\'s the Keeping on Living That\'s Hard\"
No one knew the truth of these words better than Sir Douglas Mawson,who uttered them after returning as the sole survivor of his tragic yettriumphant[link removed by ]expedition that discovered the South Magnetic Pole.On January 7 1913, Mawson stood alone as he looked over theblizzard-swept ice of Antarctica. He was 100 miles from main base, hisdogs were dead, food almost gone, and he had just made an ice tomb fora fellow explorer. There was little hope for survival. When faced withsimilar predicaments, other polar explorers had simply pitched a tent,got in their sleeping bags and spent their final days writing theirmemoirs before going gently into that good night.Despitethe lack of hope, Mawson did not sit around and wait to die. He had asingle-minded determination to never surrender and it was thisdetermination that kept him putting one foot in front of the next. Evenwhen the soles of each foot came away to leave exposed flesh, he simplybandaged them back into place and kept his feet moving forward.Just as Mawson had almost no hope that he would make it back, hissearch team had almost no hope that they would find anyone alive. Allteams had to be back by January 14, otherwise encroaching sea ice wouldprevent their ship from leaving. Despite the lack of hope, six mendecided to endure another[link removed by ]winter so that they could continuesearching, and continue building snow cairns for a lost party thatwould almost certainly never use them. Against all odds, on January 29Mawson found one of these cairns. A week and a half later, he walkedback into main base with one of the two greatest tales of polarsurvival ever told (the other being that of Sir Ernest Shackleton).It was due to Mawson\'s survival that nearly 50% of Antarctica is nowAustralian territory. More importantly, Mawson is arguably the onlyAustralian icon with whom even negative-minded Aussies have not beenable to find fault. His story of survival was one of determination,endurance and an absolute refusal to ever give up.The story of Mawson\'s incredible survival continues below, beneath theblue Specificationsbox...Obverse
This dynamic coin depictsseveral different scenes of Mawson\'s steam sailing ship, the SY Aurora, as well as theunfortunate other members of his team, their base camp, and their [link removed by ] dog teams. The legends read SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON andAUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC PIONEER.Reverse
Her Majesty, [link removed by ] II,in crowned profile facingright. This portrait, featuring Her Majesty wearing a tiara and pearldrop earrings, was executed by the sculptor Raphael Maklouf. ThelegendELIZABETH II, the date of issue and denomination alsoappear, while the legend 5 OZ 999 SILVER guarantees the weight andpurity. The additional vignettes of Mawson\'s expedition on this sideinclude the legends A TALE OF TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY and 1911-1914AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.Packaging
The coin is encapsulated inside a highly polished, solid wood,clamshell-stylepresentation case, lined with black velvet and protected by anouter box. A full-color, individually-numbered certificate ofauthenticity Issue2014
FaceValue10 500
FinishProofComposition.999Fine (Pure) SilverEdgeSerrated(milled, reeded) with Serial Number Edge Numbered
Mawson\'s Tale - HeroicSurvival in the Frozen Waste of Antarctica
Afterdiscovering the South Magnetic Pole, Mawson fortuitously turned down aninvitation to join Robert Falcon Scott\'s ill-fated Terra NovaExpedition in 1910; Australian geologist Griffith Taylor went withScott instead. Mawson chose to lead his own expedition, the AustralianAntarctic Expedition, to King George V Land and Adelie Land, the sectorof the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which at thetime was almost entirely unexplored. His objectives were to carry outgeographical exploration and scientific studies, including a returnvisit to the South Magnetic Pole. Thus began a saga of remarkablesurvival against all odds, rivaled only by Shackleton\'s own heroicextraction of his entire expedition during his 1914-1916 saga. TheAustralianAntarctic Expedition, on the ship SYAurora,departed Hobart on 2 December 1911, landed at Cape Denison onCommonwealth Bay on 8 January 1912, and established the Main Base.Mawson wanted to do aerial exploration and brought the first airplaneto Antarctica. The aircraft, a Vickers REP monoplane, did not operatewell in the cold, and the engine was removed and returned to Vickers inEngland. The aircraft fuselage itself was abandoned. On January 2, 2010fragments of it were re-discovered by the Mawson\'s Huts Foundation,which is restoring the original huts.Mawson\'s explorationprogram was carried out by five parties from the Main Base and two fromthe Western Base. Mawson himself was part of a three-man sledging teamwith Xavier Mertz and Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis who headed east onNovember 10, 1912 to survey King George V Land. After five weeks ofexcellent progress mapping the coastline and collecting geologicalsamples the party was crossing the Ninnis Glacier 480 km east of themain base. Mertz was skiing and Mawson was on his sled with his weightdisbursed but Ninnis was jogging beside the second sled. Ninnis fellthrough a snow-covered crevasse, his body weight is likely to havebreached the lid. The six best dogs, most of the party\'s rations, theirtent and other essential supplies disappeared into the massivecrevasse. Mertz and Mawson spotted one dead and one injured dog on aledge 50m down but Ninnis was never seen again.After a briefservice Mawson and Mertz turned back immediately. They had one weeksprovisions for three men, no dog food but plenty of fuel and a primus.They sledged for 27 hours continuously to obtain a spare tent coverthey had left behind, for which they improvised a frame from skis and atheodolite. Their lack of provisions forced them to use their remainingsled dogs to feed the other dogs and themselves. Mawson wrote in hisjournal,Their meat was tough,stringy and without a vestige of fat. For a change we sometimes choppedit up finely, mixed it with a little pemmican, and brought all to theboil in a large pot of water. We were exceedingly hungry, but there wasnothing to satisfy our appetites. Only a few ounces were used of thestock of ordinary food, to which was added a portion of dog\'s meat,never large, for each animal yielded so very little, and the major partwas fed to the surviving dogs. They crunched the bones and ate theskin, until nothing remained.There was a quickdeterioration in the men\'s physical condition during this journey. Bothmen suffered dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, irrationality, mucusalfissuring and skin, hair and nail loss, and the yellowing of eyes andskin. Later Mawson noticed a dramatic change in his travelingcompanion. Mertz seemed to lose the will to move and wished only toremain in his sleeping bag. He began to deteriorate rapidly withdiarrhea and madness. On one occasion Mertz refused to believe he wassuffering from frostbite and bit off the tip of his own little finger.This was soon followed by violent raging - Mawson had to sit on hiscompanion\'s chest and hold down his arms to prevent him damaging theirtent. Mertz suffered further seizures before falling into a coma anddying on 7 January 1913.Mawson continued the final 100 milesalone. During the return trip to the Main Base, he fell through the lidof a crevasse and was saved only by his sledge wedging itself into theice above him. He was forced to climb out using the harness attachinghim to the sled.When Mawson finally made it back to Cape Denison, the ship Aurorahad left only a few hours before. The ship was recalled by wirelesscommunication, only to have bad weather thwart the rescue effort.Mawson, and six men who had remained behind to look for him, wintered asecond year until December 1913 before their trials finally came to anend.NiueNiue is a small island nation in the South Pacific. Although it iscompletely self-governing and independent, it remains in freeassociation with New Zealand, a member of the British Commonwealth ofNations, hence the portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on itscoinage. The country is located about 1,450 miles northeast of NewZealand. It is closest to Samoa, Tonga, and the Cook Islands. It is oneof the largest coral islands in the world, with a total area of 260square kilometers. Niueans are predominantly Polynesian; most arebilingual, speaking both Niuean and English.Talisman World Coins and Medals has been in business for more than 20years and is one of the largest world coin direct distributors andwholesalers in the world. ANA Life Member.
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Niue 2014 Mawson\'s 1911-1914 Antarctic Expedition 5 Oz Pure Silver $10 Proof:
$399.95