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2 Dollars - Elizabeth II Siege of Tobruk
| Issuer | Niue |
|---|---|
| Year | 2021 |
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| Currency | Dollar of New Zealand (1987-date) |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A richly colored and detailed commemorative composition depicting scenes from the 1941 Siege of Tobruk. At the center right, a large portrait of a smiling Australian digger wearing a broad-brimmed slouch hat dominates the foreground, while behind him a group of soldiers in desert kit marches across the middle ground, and a group of cheerful troops is depicted at the lower left. A circular medallion in the upper left field bears the iconic Rats of Tobruk emblem — a rat rampant within a beaded border — with the legend RATS OF TOBRUK and the date 1941. A quoted attribution to Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead appears in the lower field, with the siege dates 10 APRIL - 27 NOVEMBER 1941 along the base, and the title THE SIEGE OF TOBRUK arcing at the top; the names of key engagements and locations are inscribed along the inner border on both sides. |
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| Reverse lettering | El Adem Road · Ras el Medauar · Battle of the Salient · Twin Pimples Raid THE SIEGE OF TOBRUK Operation Brevity · Operation Battleaxe · Operation Crusader RATS OF TOBRUK 1941 "We're not here to take it, we're here to give it." - Lt.-Gen. Leslie Morshead. 10 APRIL - 27 NOVEMBER 1941 |
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| Additional information |
Niue has become one of the Pacific's most prolific licensing hubs for commemorative issues, contracting New Zealand's Mint to produce colored and plated collector pieces bearing the Cook Islands' neighbor's name largely as a legal convenience. The Siege of Tobruk — the 241-day Australian-led defense against Rommel's Afrika Korps in 1941 — is legitimate subject matter, but this piece is a modern bullion-adjacent product with no monetary connection to either Niue or the campaign it commemorates.
The Australian garrison that held Tobruk earned the nickname "the Rats of Tobruk" from a German propaganda broadcast intended as an insult, which the defenders adopted with deliberate pride.