5 Dollars - Elizabeth II 4th Portrait - Russell Drysdale - Masterpieces in Silver

Russell Drysdale spent much of the 1940s documenting the human cost of severe drought across inland New South Wales, producing paintings that fundamentally shifted how Australians pictured their own interior. His work was controversial precisely because it refused picturesque readings of the outback. This coin belongs to the Royal Australian Mint's Masterpieces in Silver series, which reproduced artworks in low-relief on coinage — a technically demanding process given the tonal flatness of Drysdale's palette and the hard edges of his figures.