Obverse. Photo © Royal Australian Mint
  • 25 Dollars 2018, Australia, Elizabeth II, 2018 Football (Soccer) World Cup in Russia
  • 25 Dollars 2018, Australia, Elizabeth II, 2018 Football (Soccer) World Cup in Russia
Description

The Royal Australian Mint has produced two precious metal coins to celebrate the 2018 FIFA World Cup. These coins are Australia’s contribution to the Official International Commemorative Coin Collection.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018. This will be the first World Cup ever held in Eastern Europe, and the first held in Europe since 2006.

The 20 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Germany and Italy, with four titles each; Argentina and inaugural winner Uruguay, with two titles each; and England, France and Spain, with one title each. The current champion is Germany, which won its fourth title at the 2014 tournament in Brazil.

The World Cup is the most prestigious association football tournament in the world as well as the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games; the cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup was estimated to be 26.29 billion with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the final match, a ninth of the entire population of the planet.

Obverse

Fourth crowned portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II facing right, wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara.

The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara was a wedding present in 1947 from her grandmother, Queen Mary, who received it as a gift from the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland in 1893 on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of York, later George V. Made by E. Wolfe & Co., it was purchased from Garrard & Co. by a committee organised by Lady Eve Greville. In 1914, Mary adapted the tiara to take 13 diamonds in place of the large oriental pearls surmounting the tiara. At first, Elizabeth wore the tiara without its base and pearls but the base was reattached in 1969. The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara is one of Elizabeth's most recognisable pieces of jewellery due to its widespread use on British banknotes and coinage.

Engraver: Ian Rank-Broadley

ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 2018
IRB

Reverse

Depicts a pattern of footballs and kangaroos surrounding the FIFA World Cup Trophy.

The World Cup is a gold trophy that is awarded to the winners of the FIFA World Cup association football tournament. Since the advent of the World Cup in 1930, two trophies have been used: the Jules Rimet Trophy from 1930 to 1970, and the FIFA World Cup Trophy from 1974 to the present-day.

The first trophy, originally named Victory, but later renamed in honour of former FIFA president Jules Rimet, was made of gold plated sterling silver and lapis lazuli and depicted Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Brazil won the trophy outright in 1970, prompting the commissioning of a replacement. The original Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1983 and never recovered.

The subsequent trophy, called the "FIFA World Cup Trophy", was introduced in 1974. Made of 18 karat gold with a malachite base, it stands 36.8 centimeters high and weighs 6.1 kilograms. The trophy was made by Stabilimento Artistico Bertoni company in Italy. It depicts two human figures holding up the Earth.

25 DOLLARS
2018 FIFA WORLD CUP RUSSIA TM
1/4 oz .9999 Au
TM

Edge -
Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Non-circulating)
Material Gold
Fineness 0.9999
Weight 7.78 g
Diameter 21.69 mm
Thickness -
Shape round
Alignment -
Mint
Royal Australian Mint (RAM)

Related coins

4th portrait

2018 Football (Soccer) World Cup in Russia

Silver, 31.1 g, ⌀ 40 mm