Commemorative 1 dollar 2000 - Victoria Cross
By CAA | Friday, 15 November 2024
The Royal Australian Mint released on August 7, 2000, a $1 collector coin commemorating the action, a hundred years ago, that resulted in the awarding of Australia's first Victoria Cross (VC). The VC is the highest military award available to members of the Commonwealth military forces. This coin is a tribute to some of Australia's bravest military personnel.
The name of every Australian VC recipient was printed on the presentation package housing the coin, which was not released in general circulation.
Instituted by Queen Victoria in 1856, the Victoria Cross is granted to members of Commonwealth military forces for gallantry in the presence of the enemy. Originally only granted to British military personnel, members of colonial military forces became eligible from 1867.
The medal was designed in the form of a Maltese Cross cast in bronze derived from Russian cannon captured at Sevastapol in the Crimean War, with the motto For Valour, chosen by the Queen. The date of the act of valour is inscribed on the reverse of the cross, with the rank, name and unit of the recipient on the back of the suspender bar.
Ninety-six Australians were awarded the VC since it was instituted in Australia to 2000. The Australian War Memorial in Canberra holds more than 50 Victoria Crosses, one of the largest public collection of the medal in the world.
Captain Neville Howse is considered the first Australian Victoria Cross recipient, and the only medic, for his brave actions on July 24, 1900, in saving a comrade in the face of enemy fire during the Boer War. He and other members of the New South Wales Army Medical Corps were attached to a mounted infantry brigade involved in the pursuit of a Boer force led by General Christiaan De Wet in July 1900.
On July 24, they caught up with their quarry at Vredefort in the Orange Free State, and a violent action ensued. At the height of the fighting, Captain Howse saw a trumpeter fall wounded in the foremost line. As Howse rode towards the wounded man, his horse was shot dead.
Continuing on foot, he reached the wounded man and dressed his wounds before carrying him to safety. Both men survived.
Captain Neville Howse's name and the date of his action are struck on either side of this $1 coin, next to the image of a Victoria Cross medal. The coin was designed by Royal Australian Mint designer Wojciech Pietranik (designer of the Olympic Victory Medals for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games).
Neville Howse went on to a distinguished military career, serving at Gallipoli and the Western Front in the First World War. He became director of medical services of the AIF in October 15 and controlled medical services in Egypt, Palestine, France and Belgium for the remainder of the war.
In 1922, he was elected to the House of Representatives as the Member for Calare and Health and Minister in charge of repatriation. He died on September 19, 1930 in London.
Specifications
- Composition: Aluminum bronze
- Weight: 9 g
- Diameter: 25 mm
- Finish: Uncirculated
- Reverse: Wojciech Pietranik
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