Owner Comments:
Joint Finest Known PFUC! (1/510)
Total Graded: 1,157
Mintage: 6,133
Part of the PROTEA SERIES for the S1R.
The South African Mint released attractive designs and special themes to commemorate special events or awards. Each reverse bears a different design based on the theme for that year.
The 2008 commemorative coin issue is a celebration and tribute to the impact that Mahatma Gandhi had in South Africa.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed non-violent resistance to lead successful campaigns for societal change. Although born in India, at the age of 23 he moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. It was here that Gandhi raised a family and first employed non-violent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit 'great-souled, venerable'), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world.
In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
Interestingly, although Gandhi was nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize between 1937 and 1948, including the first-ever nomination by the American Friends Service Committee, he was never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Decades later, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission and admitted to deeply divided nationalistic opinion denying the award. Gandhi was nominated in 1948 but was assassinated before nominations closed. That year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living candidate". Later research shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable living candidate was to Gandhi.
Obverse
The obverse has an image of the King Protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower of South Africa.
Centered top, the name of the country in English: SOUTH AFRICA.
Below, the date of issue: * 2008 *.
Designer: Arthur L. Sutherland (ALS)
Reverse
A frontal image of Mahatma Gandhi as a young lawyer.
Lettering: Along the top the inscription "My Life is my Message. His signature bottom left and the denomination R1 on the left.
Designer: MJ Scheepers (MJS)