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2 Pounds - Elizabeth II Trans-Antarctic Expedition
| Issuer | Pobjoy Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 2007 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Milled |
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| Obverse description | Right-facing draped bust of Queen Elizabeth II wearing a tiara, after the effigy designed by Ian Rank-Broadley. The peripheral legend reads SOUTH GEORGIA & SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS, with the date 2007 positioned to the lower right. The engraver's initials IRB appear below the truncation of the bust. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse depicts Sir Ernest Shackleton and members of his crew stranded aboard an ice floe on New Year's Eve 1914, transfixed by the Aurora Australis illuminating the polar night sky above them. The scene is rendered in high relief, capturing the dramatic contrast between the figures huddled on the ice and the sweeping luminous display overhead. The legend TRANS-ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION arcs along the upper periphery, with AURORA AUSTRALIS inscribed across the central field. The denomination TWO POUNDS and the Pobjoy Mint mark PM appear in the lower portion of the design. |
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| Additional information |
The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1955–58, led by Vivian Fuchs with Edmund Hillary commanding the New Zealand support party, was the first land crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole — completing a route Shackleton had attempted and abandoned in 1914. Hillary famously overstepped his support role and pushed on to the Pole itself using Ferguson farm tractors, arriving before Fuchs and creating a minor diplomatic friction that the expedition's official accounts long downplayed.
This Pobjoy issue commemorates the crossing's 50th anniversary, struck for the British Antarctic Territory.