October 8, 2013 – 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 held on 12 September 2013.
2012 $5 Southern Sky: The Crux Silver Proof Colour Printed Domed coin.
The award was selected in recognition of the engineering innovation required to produce the 2012 Southern Cross Crux Curved Coin.
The Royal Australian Mint will now go onto the Engineering Excellence Award National Finals, which will be held at Parliament House on 20 November 2013.
“This is a fantastic result for the Mint and excellent recognition of the high level of capability and expertise we have here,” said Royal Australian Mint CEO Ross MacDiarmid.
“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,” said Mr MacDiarmid.
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,” said Royal Australian Mint Engineering Services Manager Dominique Appay.
“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.
“I think we can all agree that the final product is something worth celebrating.”
To view the complete list of award categories and the winning projects, please visit the Engineers Australia Canberra Division website.
Images and more details about the winners of the Canberra Division are available here.
For images of the 2012 Southern Sky Crux Curved Coin please visit the website of The Royal Australian Mint.