Falkland Islands: penguin proposal

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Falkland Islands, 50 pence, 1987. 

King penguins.  World Wildlife Fund commemorative.

The Falkland Islands issued the above coin in 1987.

Unfortunately, I do not know who designed it.


In itself, it has nothing to do with the subject of this topic.

However, it was mentioned as part of the proposals discussed in this topic.

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In November 1987 the Royal Mint's marketing section sent the following proposal to the government of the Falkland Islands.

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And here is some background to the proposal, from internal Royal Mint memos.

A R W Lotherington was the Sales Director of the Royal Mint.

In his memo, he is replying to the A W Wallace, the Royal Mint Assistant Director of Marketing.

I do not know who Mr Mansley is.

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Falkland rockhopper suggestion.

Ian Williams of Overseas Sales warned that: "The Falklands government may be resistant to such a programme on the basis of conservative attitudes." Nevertheless, he attempted to sell the idea to the Falklands' government. The Royal Mint documents include this single scan, of rather poor quality, of sketch to illustrate the proposal. The name of the artist is not given.

The documents record that the Royal Mint did not receive a reply to the suggestion from the Falkland's government, so that was the end of the project.

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In 1990 somebody else had a similar idea.

They contacted the Royal Mint, but the idea was never adopted.

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Falkland rockhopper suggestion.

Mr J M Parker of Marketing, with reference to the idea above, wrote in an internal memo:

"I attach a copy of a proposed design which would be regarded as "cute" in the USA market."

The Royal Mint documents do not give the source of this design or the name of the artist.

No response to this idea is included in the documents.

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In 2017, the Pobjoy Mint has revived this idea of a penguin series for the Falkland Islands. Expect to see the first issued coins soon.

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Indeed, penguins are an invaluable asset in the Falkland Islands, where they are the major, possibly the only source of entertainment. The story goes that penguins are fascinated by jets flying over. British RAF pilots, the story says, came to know this and flew low and slow over beaches crowded with penguins. The poor beasties were trying to follow the jets with their beady eyes and, in so doing, lost their footing and fell on their back in droves.

Wouldn't a cute tumbling penguin colony (get the pun?) with a jet overhead be a great subject for a 1024 carat guaranteed pure silver gilded commemorative legal tender coin struck in a limited edition that all collectors must have to be complete and RAF pilots and penguins will buy it too and it will always retain its value because 1024 grains of gilded silver is the purest you can get and all the kings of England liked it?

Juno Moneta's revenge will be terrible.

Peter

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Do Penguins Fall Over Watching Airplanes?

Extracts:

As charming as the story is, there's not much reason to believe it. Penguins hate the sound made by airplanes and are known to scatter whenever one approaches.

In November 2000, British Antarctic Survey researchers announced plans to spend one month aboard HMS Endurance studying the "falling penguin" phenomenon, even though one of their members, Dr. Richard Stone, proclaimed: "I'm afraid it's an urban myth. Aircraft do have an effect on penguins, but not to the extent of birds falling over."
In January 2001, the Associated Press reported Dr. Stone's findings:
When an aircraft flies overhead, they do not topple over like dominoes, as some Royal Air Force pilots have reported.

A scientist who recently watched king penguins react to aircraft said Thursday that the birds do the practical thing: shut up and try to get away from the noise.

"Not one king penguin fell over when the helicopters came over Antarctic Bay," said Richard Stone of the British Antarctic Survey.

"As the aircraft approached, the birds went quiet and stopped calling to each other, and adolescent birds that were not associated with nests began walking away from the noise," he said in an interview.

Barbara "falling fowl of the truth" Mikkelson.


Conclusion: it's a myth, as ridiculous as that ridiculously long sentence of yours. 

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I know what these ridiculous people have said, but they are mere scientists. This is the age of alternative facts, fake news and post truths. As Newt Gingrich put it: "You can stick with your statistics, but I will stick with how people feel". He also said that how people feel was decided by politicians. To be modern, a coin can no longer afford to be scientifically correct. It must be in line with factoids created by politicians. Therefore, you are just adding more weight to the argument that toppling penguins are appropriate for this important proposed coinoid.

Thank you for spotting the question mark at the end of my spaghetti sentence and figuring out why it was there. I agree I could have been a great marketing copywriter if I had just though of working in some fashionable grammatical errors.

Peter