British Antarctic Territory: Discovery of Antarctica 2 pound

[eurocoin]

Pobjoy Mint has today released a 2 pound coin of the British Antarctic Territory to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antartica. The coin has a mintage of 2,020 pieces in base metal and 199 pieces in silver proof quality.

[Deeman]

The continental Antarctic landmass was sighted in 1820 by both British and Russian expeditions within the same month. Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, a Baltic German officer in the Imperial Russian Navy sighted a land-like mass of ice, possibly the shelf edge of continental ice, on Jan 27. Bellingshausen did not claim to have done so, but his descriptions of what he saw tally very well. Edward Bransfield, an officer in the Royal Navy, sighted Trinity Peninsula, the northernmost point of the Antarctic mainland, on Jan 30, aboard the merchant ship Williams.

Four selected facts about Antarctica:
Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent on Earth.
You cannot work in Antarctica unless your wisdom teeth and appendix are removed.
Antarctica is the only continent without a time zone.
There are no ants on Antarctica.

[eurocoin]

The coins sold out in no-time.

[Deeman]

The coins sold out in no-time.

Did someone buy the job lot? I never even saw them listed as available under "pre-order" and I visit the Pobjoy Mint site frequently. I doubt whether they ever appeared listed for sale.

[eurocoin]

They were available for only a few hours. It went very fast.

[Deeman]

Painting of Williams, the small brig sailing alongside Trinity Land in Jan 1820.

[Figleaf]

The ship on the painting has two sprit sails. That on the coin has three. Normally, a brig with three sails on the main mast would have two sprit sails. A brig with four sails on the main mast would have three sprit sails. Chances are that the coin is historically wrong, all the more so because I don't trust the hull shape, rope ladders and crows nest on the coin.

Peter

[Deeman]

The Williams, a small two-masted brig of just 216 tons and about 25 metres in length, was built in Blyth in 1813 and skippered by local Captain William Smith who discovered the first land in Antarctica in 1819 - New South Shetland - in Feb 1819.

Following the discovery, Smith's vessel was chartered by the RN under the full command of Edward Bransfield accompanied by three midshipmen and a surgeon. Bransfield's instructions were to locate and map any new territories and to take possession for King George IV.

The first sight of land was made on 16 Jan 1820 as Bransfield ran along the South Shetland Islands seen by Smith a few months before. A small party went ashore on King George Island to formally claim the territory for Britain and Bransfield then turned south into the unknown seas.
This deep stretch of water, which is about 60 miles wide and 300 miles long, is today known as the Bransfield Strait and separates the South Shetlands from the Antarctic Peninsula.

On Sunday, 30 Jan 1820, one of Bransfield's junior officers, Midshipman Poynter, who kept a personal log of the journey wrote:
"At 3/4 past 3 on the ensuing Morning while standing to the Southward we made a Group of small Islands extending from SE to EbS. for the purpose of weathering them we shook out the 2nd reef of the Fore Topsail – Set the courses and bottom Mainsail close reefed, and while thus employed perceived Two Islands on the Weather bow – Without the possibility of being able to effect our design at 20 minutes after Four we Wore, the whole range stretching from EbN to SW. The Winds at this time were Strong and hazy Horizon which occasionally shut and opened to view an unknown Coast abounding with rocky Islets – At 8 The extremes of what we deemed the Main bore from SW to WbN and at 9 from North to SW Twenty minutes after we tacked to the Southward and at 1/2 past 11 set the Land WSW 3 and 4 Leagues – At Noon our Latitude by a Meridian Altitude was 630. 3′. 30″ Longitude by Chronometer 600. 25′. 30" W At 1/2 past 12 the Hazard thickening we Made more sail standing to the Southward and as it would appear by the bearing of the land at Noon away from it – At 3 our notice was attracted by Three very large Icebergs and 20 minutes after we were unexpectedly astonished by the discovery of land SbW-
He continues;
"...and immediately after this was discernable a high and rude range running in a NE and SW direction the centre of it bearing SE 6 or 7 Miles — a steep and roundish Island about 5 Miles distant SSW and a small circular Island SSW ½ W — the whole of these formed a Prospect not easily described ......"
Most significantly he added:
"Our theme of conversation was the idea of having by the direction of land took found what might possibly lead to the discovering of the long-contested existence of a Southern Continent."

C. W. Poynter's journal is the only surviving first-hand account of Bransfield's historic voyage of discovery.

[Figleaf]

I think I got it. The ship on the coin is not the brig Williams, but the sloop-of-war Vostok, Von Bellinghausen's ship. The rope ladders and crows nest are still funny, though. In addition, the third mast is either not there or lost in the rigging, drawn much too thick.

Peter

[Deeman]

It is supposed to be the Williams.

I googled the anniversary and found a Pobjoy listing for the silver coin.
They say:
"This very special £2 features the ship, the Williams used by Edward Bransfield on his voyage to survey this newly sighted land of ice. A map of Antarctica is shown behind the ship. The obverse of the coin features an effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II produced exclusively by Pobjoy Mint."

[Deeman]

The origin of the design comes from Williams II, a refitted gaffed riffed ketch, which was built of oak with pine decking and masts in 1914 in Denmark and has almost exactly the same dimensions as the original Williams. It sailed around Britain in the 2018 summer and was a huge success as a shake down voyage, preparing the crew, ship and back up teams for future voyages.

[Figleaf]

Yes, this sketch is what's on the coin. A different ship altogether. Note the Danish navy (I think) flag on the sketch and the US flag on the painting.

Peter

[Deeman]

Prior to the issue of the £2 coin commemorating the discovery of Antarctica, Pobjoy Mint issued a BAT 50p coin showing HMS Erebus to mark the 220th anniversary of the birth of Captain James Clark Ross.

In Sep 1838, with Ross as commander, HMS Erebus accompanied by HMS Terror sailed to the Antarctic to discover the South Magnetic Pole, examine Antarctica, and conduct numerous scientific tests according to directions of the Royal Society. They penetrated the ice belt as far south as latitude 78°9'30" in Jan 1841, reaching open water and discovering the Ross Sea, so becoming the first vessels to force a way through the pack ice of the Ross Sea. They continued to sail south and discovered Victoria Land (now part of New Zealand's Ross Dependency). Continuing south, they discovered Ross Island; with twin volcanos that Ross named Erebus and Terror, and the huge ice shelf that also bears his name. The Ross Shelf Ice barred their way further south, and they were forced to turn back. Two further attempts were made to solve the "Great Barrier Mystery" but both failed owing to bad weather conditions.

However, the picture on the packaging is an oil painting by the Belgian marine artist François Etienne Musin (1820–1888) and shows HMS Erebus in 1846 in the ice in the Arctic when under the command of Sir John Franklin. In 1848, Erebus along with Terror were were abandoned in the Arctic ice.

Somewhat strange choice of picture selection!

[chrisild]

People who like "theme sets" may be interested in the €2 coin from Estonia. This is the topic, and here is the (embedded) image:



Christian

[Deeman]

Interesting fact about the 1839-43 Ross Antarctic Expedition:

It was to be the last major voyage of exploration made entirely under sail. For the subsequent Northwest Passage voyage in 1845-48 under the command of Franklin, HMS Erebus & Terror were fitted out with single screw propellers powered by 20hp engines.