Owner Comments:
Joint Finest Known PFUC! (1/234)
Total Graded: 727
Mintage: 4,155
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 2006 issue continues with the South African Nobel Prize winners commemorative coin series.
Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 1931 – 26 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology.
As Tutu rose to prominence in the 1970s, different socio-economic groups and political classes held a wide range of views about him, from critical to admiring. He was popular among South Africa's black majority and was internationally praised for his work involving anti-apartheid activism, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize and other international awards.
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: * 2006 *.
Designer: Arthur L. Sutherland (ALS)
Reverse
A frontal image of Tutu with a stylized cross on the left of the Archbishop and his signature above, on the top right.
Lettering: R1; 1984 Nobel Laureate inscriptions.
Designer: MJ Scheepers (MJS)