Issued to mark the Queen Mother's centenary year, this piece commemorates Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who reached her 100th birthday on August 4, 2000 — an occasion that prompted over 40,000 people to gather outside Buckingham Palace. The Bahamas had maintained strong ties to the British Crown through independence in 1973, and royal commemorative issues remained a consistent feature of Bahamian numismatic policy well into the post-colonial decades.
The bimetallic format — a then-fashionable production choice among Commonwealth mints around the turn of the millennium — was achieved here through a gilt outer ring rather than a true gold alloy, a cost-containment decision common to commemorative programs of this type.
Issued to mark the Queen Mother's centenary year, this piece commemorates Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who reached her 100th birthday on August 4, 2000 — an occasion that prompted over 40,000 people to gather outside Buckingham Palace. The Bahamas had maintained strong ties to the British Crown through independence in 1973, and royal commemorative issues remained a consistent feature of Bahamian numismatic policy well into the post-colonial decades.
The bimetallic format — a then-fashionable production choice among Commonwealth mints around the turn of the millennium — was achieved here through a gilt outer ring rather than a true gold alloy, a cost-containment decision common to commemorative programs of this type.