BIOT: Series of turtle 50p coins 2019

[eurocoin]

Pobjoy Mint has just released the first in a series of 50p coins of the British Indian Ocean Territory. The pieces feature turtles. They have a mintage of 3,750 pieces each.

The following coins will be released:

Green Turtle
Hawksbill Turtle
Leatherback Turtle
Loggerhead Turtle
Olive Ridley Turtle

The first 500 people who buy the coin with the album receive a free titanium coin with their order.

[eurocoin]

Three furher coins in this series have now been released:

The Hawksbill Turtle 50p is now available here.

The Leatherback Turtle 50p is now available here.

The Loggerhead Turtle 50p coin is now available here.

[MCz]

The last one coin from series (Olive Ridley Turtle) is avaliable to order from Pobjoy Mint with shipping after 19th November.

[Deeman]

Turtle sizes.

[Deeman]

The series features all five of the seven remaining species of sea turtles can be found in the Indian Ocean: Green, Hawksbill, Olive Ridley, Loggerhead and Leatherback.

BIOT hosts an important nesting population of Hawksbill and Green Turtles.

Ridley is a strange name for a turtle. The evidence is strong that 'ridley' is a vernacular of local usage in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas.
Archie Carr (1909-1987) was an American herpetologist, ecologist and a pioneering conservationist whom the Oxford English Dictionary cite as the source of the name, but says the etymology is unknown.
According to Carr's widow 'ridley' came from 'riddle', which was transmogrified to 'riddler' and finally 'ridley'. The riddle being "Who were its parents?" No one knew from whence the 'bastard turtle', as local turtlers sometimes called it, came or where it bred. The Florida Keys are (or were) home to a number of fishermen from the Bahamas; whether they or the native Floridians first used the name 'ridley' is not certain.

[Deeman]

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