Owner Comments:
Joint Finest Known! (1/23)
Nelson Mandela 100th Anniversary NGC Label.
Total Graded: 53
Mintage: 265
This coin is part of the Life of a Legend - Nelson Mandela series of Protea coinage which was introduced in 2013, representing a different chapter of Nelson Mandela’s life on each year’s coin issue. The 2018 edition features his 27-year incarceration and eventual release.
The reverse of this R1 sterling-silver coin depicts Nelson Mandela looking through the barred window of his Robben Island prison cell during a visit to the island in 1994, together with an image taken shortly after his release from Victor Verster Prison on 11 February 1990, after 27 years imprisonment. In diagonal stripes covering the right half of the design, the quotation on the coin reads: "Prison is itself a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all, a test of one’s commitment."
Below left, the value and denomination R1 (One Rand).
The obverse, common for all coins of the series in 2018, features Mr Mandela wearing one of his iconic Madiba shirts, underlined by a wreath made from South Africa’s national flower, the King Protea, and the date of issue 2018 divided by the portrait.
Above Mandela's shoulder, the initials of the die-sinker VLC (for VL Chipa); the design is by L. Guerra.
Around above, the legend SOUTH AFRICA.