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Australia Bradman

1997 Bi-Metal Five Dollar

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Australian cricketer and sporting legend, Sir Donald Bradman is honoured and celebrated in this $5 bi-metallic commemorative coin. He is widely acclaimed as being the best ever cricketing batsman and his achievements are arguably amongst the best of any sporting champion. He is considered to be a hero in Australia and is known and celebrated internationally too. It is no real surprise that he was chosen to feature and to be honoured in this particular coin as well as various others during the following years. He gave his permission for his image to be used, on the condition that all royalties go to his charitable organisation, the Bradman foundation. Born in 1908, Donald George Bradman, who would later become Sir Donald and referred to widely as "The Don" took an in interest in sports in a very young age. He was born in Cootamundra in New South Wales and as a youth become passionate about cricket even to the extent that he invented his own training technique that allowed him to practice batting by himself. He didn't have a bat so resorted to the use of a cricket stump instead. His solo cricket game required a golf ball that was hit into a curve in the wall of his house and as it deflected at random angles he would attempt to hit it again. Playing this game incessantly as a boy developed his great hand-eye co-ordination, and quick reactions. (Wikipedia, 2013) By the age of 12 he was playing "real" cricket at school and hit his first century of many to come throughout his long career as a test batsman.

Throughout his career that spanned for over 25 years, he achieved a test batting average of 99.84. This incredible statistic not only makes him the highest achieving cricketer of all time but arguably the highest achieving sportsman of any kind too. His career began before World War II when he began to make and break some incredible records, some of which still stand today. He made a dramatic comeback after the war and he captained the Australian cricket team on their record-breaking unbeaten tour of England. This Australian team became known as The Invincible's. He brought in great number of spectators, all hoping for a sight of some amazing and entertaining cricket and during the Great Depression, he helped to shape a nation by providing them with a sporting hero and someone to support and celebrate. His achievements on behalf of the nation soon led to him being considered a sporting hero and he was the subject of constant adulation and admiration everywhere he went. He was described by former captain Bill Woodfull as being "worth three batsman to Australia." He was uncomfortable with the amount of attention he received and in his later life, despite staying involved with cricket and administration he became quite aloof and somewhat of a recluse. After his wife died in 1997, he became even more withdrawn and after being hospitalised with pneumonia, he finally died at home peacefully at the age of 92. His memorial service, held at St Peter's Anglican Cathedral, Adelaide was broadcast live on TV and was seen by almost 1.5 million viewers.

This bi-metallic $5 coin was released in 1996 by the Royal Australian Mint and is a Sir Donald Bradman commemorative coin. It is one of two coins released in that particular year that marked the beginning of numerous issues that would be released by the RAM during and after the career and life of the sporting icon. The other coin released in 1996 also had a denomination of $5 but was a slightly larger proof coin depicting a different image of the cricketer. The reverse of the coin was designed by Vladimir Gottwald and features the head and torso of the cricketer preparing to swing. His image is in a central copper circle and at the top of the steel outer ring is the legend SIR DONALD BRADMAN and at the bottom is the denomination 5 DOLLARS. The obverse of the coin features the Maklouf portrait of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the surrounding legend ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 1996. The coin was issued again in 1997 with the same design and the only difference reflected in the year of issue as featured on the obverse. The packaging for the uncirculated Donald Bradman $5 bi-metallic coins has a couple of variations but both include the writing 1996 $5 COIN and A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO SIR DONALD BRADMAN. Both forms of presentation are cards with the encapsulated coin integrated within and they each feature a photograph of the The Don.