SOUTH GEORGIA SHACKLETON EXPEDITION COIN

Dick Hanscom writes:

The government and treasury of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands issued a new Crown coin that pays tribute to and celebrates the centenary anniversary of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, also known as the Endurance Expedition. The expedition was named after its ship and is considered by some to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

By 1914 both, poles had been reached, so Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922)—the famed polar explorer remembered for leading three British expeditions to the Antarctic during his career—set his sights on being the first to traverse Antarctica and achieved this goal when he arrived at South Georgia on 5 November 1914.

In 1921 with the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition, which, as fate would have it, would be his last ever. He died of a heart attack while his ship was moored in South Georgia. At his wife’s request he was buried there. His grave is in the churchyard in Grytviken, South Georgia, and even today visitors to this remote island often stop there.

To read the complete article, see:
South Georgia coin to celebrate centenary of Endurance Expedition (http://en.mercopress.com/2016/12/06/south-georgia-coin-to-celebrate-centenary-of-endurance-expedition)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ANTARCTIC EXPLORER'S MEDAL OFFERED (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n49a24.html)

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