Enderbyland
is a region of Antarctica between Queen Maud Land and Wilkes Land, claimed
by Australia
as part of the
Australian Antarctic Territory. Enderbyland is named for the whaling
company, Samuel Enderby & Sons, which financed the 1831 expedition that
discovered it.
Fred
Richard Zinkann has produced this One Sovereign 1990 coin of Antarctic Territory -
Enderbyland. The diameter of the coin is 25.5mm. His initials are also visible
on the bottom of the coin as FRZ.
Reverse:
Enflamed Runic Symbol.
Obverse:
Arrowed Symbol
He has produced coins in
unusual medals having higher atomic number and density for experimental
purposes, to see what they look like in coinage form and how they might
strike up for later designs. The quantity/patterns of this coin were
produced in the following metals.
Molybdenum is a
silvery-white element usually used as an alloying addition to steels and
titanium alloys, although there are applications where the pure metal is
used. It has not been used for circulation coins.
The coins are private fantasy pattern issues minted by Mr Fred Zinkann, who
has pioneered the striking of coins in many unconventional metals. The coins
were originally planned to be struck in molybdenum 995, but due to the
hardness of this metal only 5 were struck in that metal (plus 30 pairs of
uniface molybdenum trials in a thinner flan). Eight other metals, amongst
others niobium, titanium and palladum were used to make a grand total of 30
coins (excluding the uniface coins).
Due to the scarcity of the coins, many would be collectors had to be
disappointed, which triggered Mr. Zinkann's decision to make them available
to the larger public by minting a total of 762 restrikes in 2004, 250 each
in the metals brass, copper and aluminium, plus 12 pieces counterstamped on
US quarters. The restrikes can be distinguished from the original strikes by
the metal type and an untrimmed edge, the counterstamped pieces by the
reeded edge.
Niobium an
expensive grey metal mainly used for superconducting applications in alloy
form.
The occasional medal has been made using this metal. This element used
to be called Columbium (symbol Cb) in the USA. Palladium
a scarce ductile metal of the platinum series which does not have quite the
same economic importance of platinum at present. Despite these circumstances
and difficulty a small number of patterns/coins have been made in these metals
by Fred Zinkann as mentioned below.
Metal
Remarks
Pieces
Year
Weight
Edge
Copper (Cu)
05
1990
8.0 grams
Plain
Cupronickel-clad copper
Counterstruck
on US ¼ dollar
12
1990
5.7 grams
Reeded
Copper-Nickel
(CuNi)
05
1990
7.5 grams
Plain
Molybdenum
(.995 Mo)
Obverse Die Trial Strike
30
1990
5.5 grams
Plain
Molybdenum
(.995 Mo)
Reverse Die Trial Strike
30
1990
5.5 grams
Plain
Molybdenum
(.995 Mo)
05
1990
N.A.
Plain
Niobium
(Nb)
01
1990
N.A.
Plain
Palladium (Pd)
05
1990
N.A.
Plain
Titanium (Ti)
03
1990
N.A.
Plain
Silver (Ag)
05
1990
N.A.
Plain, incuse lettering
Gold (.750Au)
01
1990
N.A.
N.A.
Copper (Cu)
250
1990 (2005)
6.0 grams
Plain
Aluminium (Al)
250
1990 (2005)
1.5 grams
Plain, outer edge untrimmed
Brass
250
1990 (2005)
6.0 grams
Plain, outer edge untrimmed
Steel
Unc
N.A.
1990 (2005)
N.A.
Plain, outer edge untrimmed
Steel
Unc - double
struck
01
1990 (2005)
5.8 grams
Plain, outer edge untrimmed
Titanium (Ti)
N.A
1990 (2005)
N.A
Plain, outer edge untrimmed
I purchased my one
sovereign 1990 CuNi plain edge coin directly from Fred R. Zinkann through
his Ebay auction. He uses Ebay id:- equillink (e_zinkann@mindspring.com)
to sell his coins.