The "Masterpieces in Silver" series was an early 1990s Royal Australian Mint initiative targeting the collector market directly, produced to proof standard and sold in presentation packaging rather than released into circulation. This piece commemorates the Queen Mother, who was then in her early nineties and had become something of a phenomenon in Commonwealth public relations — her longevity itself was a news story by 1992.
Ian Rank-Broadley had not yet replaced Raphael Maklouf's portrait on Australian coinage; this issue carries Maklouf's third-generation effigy, the last before the 1999 transition.
The "Masterpieces in Silver" series was an early 1990s Royal Australian Mint initiative targeting the collector market directly, produced to proof standard and sold in presentation packaging rather than released into circulation. This piece commemorates the Queen Mother, who was then in her early nineties and had become something of a phenomenon in Commonwealth public relations — her longevity itself was a news story by 1992.
Ian Rank-Broadley had not yet replaced Raphael Maklouf's portrait on Australian coinage; this issue carries Maklouf's third-generation effigy, the last before the 1999 transition.