The Royal Australian Mint was honoured to accept a 2013 Canberra Engineering Excellence Award for the 2012 Southern Sky Crux Curved Coin awarded at the Engineers Australia (Canberra Division) Annual Awards Ceremony. The Royal Australian Mint will now go onto the Engineering Excellence Award National Finals.
“The coin has been recognised in the international minting community as a new benchmark in collectable coin releases, and now, at the 2013 Canberra Engineering Excellence Awards,” Royal Australian Mint CEO Ross MacDiarmid commented.
Royal Australian Mint Engineering Services Manager Dominique Appay explained that this coin is the first of its kind to display such fine detail and accurate colour printing on a high polished, precious metal finish.
“While you won’t find this coin in your change – imagine the issues with vending machines! – it is a coin that many people within Australia and around the world have fallen in love with,” Mr. Appay commented.
“Creating this coin had a lot of challenges, from finding the best pressure to strike such a sharp design in silver, to ensuring that the colour printing enhanced the design to faithfully depict an Australian night sky – all on a curved, highly polished surface!” said Mr. Appay.