This
commemorative
silver coin is one piece from a set of six, which were issued to celebrate the Olympic sporting achievements of some
of Australia's best athletes. The series is called Olympic Heritage and was released in celebration of Australia's century
long participation in the Olympic games. The six coins were released in pairs over three years from 1994-1996. This coin
pays tribute to Edwin Flack and was released in 1994 and paired with Sarah Durack. These two athletes were Australia's first
Gold medal winners. In 1995 Australia's living legends Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose were commemorated and in 1996 it was the
turn of Shirley Strickland and Betty Cuthbert who are considered Australia's greatest Olympic medal winners. The coins were
struck into silver with a fantastic frosted reverse finish. This was the first set of silver coins issued by the Royal Australian
Mint and the series is a popular one.
The reverse of this coin was designed by Horst Hanhe and depicts Edwin
Flack performing his Gold Medal winning sport, running. The Olympics torch is in the background and the legend Edwin Flack
and the year of his success 1896 is written between his legs. On the outer circle the legends read AUSTRALIA'S 1st GOLD MEDALLISTS
on the top and the denomination 10 DOLLARS is bellow. The obverse features
the Raphael Maklouf portrait of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the
legend
running around the outer circle reads ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 1994. The first pair that was released from the set was
issued in a plush green presentation box with space to house the additional four coins to complete the set. This also included
a booklet entitled AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC ROLL OF HONOUR which contains a complete list of the Australian Olympic medallists
from the year 1896 until the year the first coins of the series was issued, 1994. A Certificate of Authenticity was also
included and contained a short biography of each of the athletes featured in the series.
Edwin Flack (1873-1935) was known affectionately as Teddy and was a talented athlete and tennis player that is remembered
for being Australia's first representative at the Olympics and for bringing the first gold medals back to Australia.Flack
was born in England but brought Australia by his family at the age of 5.
(Wikipedia, 2013)
Flack was a keen athlete throughout his school days in 1892 he became the champion of the one mile race of New South
Wales and Victoria. He was a member of the Old Melburnians Athletics Club and later joined the London Athletic Club when
studying further in England. Flack was the only Australian to partake in the 1896 Athens Olympics. He beat the American favourite
Arthur Blake in order to win his first gold medal for the 1500 metres run. A couple of days later he won his second for the
800 metre race. He also attempted the marathon having never trained for one in his life and was leading the race for with
just 3 km left until the finish line. Unfortunately he collapsed from exhaustion utterly delirious and required hospital
attention. Never the less he had done his country proud and he left the Games a double gold medal winner and the name the
"Lion of Athens."
Find out what dealers are paying with a subscription.
