AC/DC: For Those About to Rock
Cook Islands. 2 Dollars 2019. Silver .999. 1/2 oz. 38.61 mm. Proof. Mintage: 5,000. B. H. Mayer’s Kunstprägeanstalt, Munich.
Description
The obverse features the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley (initials: IRB); around, name of ruler, issuing nation and denomination 2 DOLLARS.
On the reverse, you can see the colored cover of the AC/DC album For Those About to Rock. In the field right, year of mintage 2019.
Background
In 2018, CIT Coin Invest AG released the first issue of its successful AC/DC series, which is as popular among fans of this band as it is among lovers of innovative minting technology. For Those About to Rock is already the fifth issue of this series. You cannot put a stylistic label on this CIT Coin Invest AG series, just like you can’t put one on the innovative hard rock band. Every issue is different and produced with another technology.
The fifth edition of the AC/DC series is dedicated to the seventh international studio album and therefore to one of the most famous AC/DC songs: “For those about to rock, we salute you.” If you’ve ever been to an AC/DC concert, you know that this song concludes almost each of their events. Angus Young wrote it after reading a book about the gladiators of Ancient Rome. The title “For those about to rock, we salute you.” plays with the Latin phrase: “Morituri te salutant” (= We who are about to die, salute you).
And the salutes fired by cannons at the end of the stage performance of this song are an allusion to a widespread military ritual. All around the world, salutes fired by cannons are a special honor only extraordinary persons are awarded within the context of official events. In Australia, for example, national presidents and members of the royal family are honored at their arrival with 21 shots according to an exactly fixed hierarchy which determines the number of shots. The lower the importance of the person being honored, the lower the number of shots. At the same time, the salutes are closely connected to the rituals of military funerals. In honor of each soldier who died during a battle, three volley shots are fired as a last salute.
Thus, Angus Young plays extraordinarily on this song, with the image of hard rockers that are having a short and intense life. The song and the firing cannons are a homage from the hard rock band to their audience.
CIT Coin Invest AG makes this song the subject of a coin struck in proof quality with color application.
Every AC/DC fan will be thrilled by it. If you realize that the YouTube video of “For Those About to Rock” had 44 million views by September 2019, you will get an idea about how low the coin’s mintage is calculated.
