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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> Miscellaneous -> RAM 2011 "Australia Remembers"
Post Info TOPIC: RAM 2011 "Australia Remembers"
Rectalgia


Legend

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RAM 2011 "Australia Remembers"
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The Royal Australian Mint's "Australia Remembers" commemorative coin in 2011 remembers war historians.  The 20¢ coin reverse side depiction is of a photographer (Staff Sergeant William Joyce) setting up over the rear deck of a Mk V which was involved in the adance through the Hindenburg Line on 4 October 1918.

The RAM product description is at http://mintissue.ramint.gov.au/mintissue/product.asp?code=310030

The AWM photograph on which the incident is based is shown at http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/E03915.  Unfortunately for Australian Official Photographer, Captain George Hubert Wilkins, MC who was with Staff Sergeant Joyce at the time, he was in an unphotogenic position.  So he was photoshopped out in the coin depiction.  How's that for unconscious irony?  Chief historian Charles Bean was bitterly opposed to the "doctoring" of photos and hauled the famous Frank Hurley over the coals for doing just such things.  Or he tried too - Hurley was most probably pretty-much "unhaulable", having far more impressive credentials than Bean IMO.



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d_fernetti


Hero

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I think it's unfair to alter an historic photograph. Many cases come to mind (think of all those Stalin pictures with his comrades airbrushed out one by one) and in every case the effort is futile and the results are confusing. Why not making an ORIGINAL motif for something? Taking just a pose from a photograph denaturalizes the original image and makes a poor motif for a numismatic subject.
Just my humble opinion...
D.
PS: besides the tank tracks must have more mud in it! wink.gif

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Rectalgia


Legend

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I agree - but looking more closely it seems the coin image is an "interpretation" rather than an exact reproduction - that's okay then.  Except those tracks are even cleaner in the coin depiction biggrin

RAM4.PNG

Is that a lens cap you have in your tunic pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?



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LincolnTanker


Commander in Chief

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I thick the RAM ought to be commended for producing the coin, I'd much rather see an image based loosely on a photo than some stylised representation.

 

You can see in Rectalgias' post above that the image is not an accurate trace of the original photo, so I don't think it can be compaired with Soviet, and others, messing with photos.

If both figures were on the coin the image may have looked too fussy?

Anyway it's got a tank on it, must be good.

 



-- Edited by LincolnTanker on Tuesday 12th of April 2011 06:36:32 PM

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ChrisG


The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity (Dorothy Parker)
Marty


Sergeant

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Not very clean flowing lines on the right track. Looks like it hit a mine the way it is bent up.

Speaking of airbrushing photos, are they not removing Winstons cigars from his pictures these days as well?

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Rectalgia


Legend

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You mean he didn't really make all those "V-for-victory" signs? I hope such alterations are minority aberrations if they exist at all. I'm certainly on d_fernetti's side when it comes to (not) sanitising historical depictions (or history itself). It's not as if hordes of young and impressionable minds are going to be seduced into the lure of the evil weed by gazing on Winston's corpulent and benign form clutching a stogie. I'm reasonably sure most of them would simply be thinking how uncool it is to grow old, if you end up looking like that.

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Marty


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Rectalgia wrote:

 I'm reasonably sure most of them would simply be thinking how uncool it is to grow old, if you end up looking like that.

 LOL -- I'm sure Winnie had his fare share of "Spotted Dick".

 



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