Iconic Revolutionaries – Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
Mongolia. 1000 Togrog. 2022 Silver .999. 1 oz. Partial color application; smartminting (High Relief). 38.61 mm. Proof. Mintage: 1,000. B. H. Mayer’s Kunstprägeanstalt, Munich.
Mongolia. 1000 Togrog. 2022 Gold .9999. 0.5 g. 11 mm. Proof. Mintage: 5,000. B. H. Mayer’s Kunstprägeanstalt, Munich.
Description of the Coin
The other side features the coat of arms of the Bank of Mongolia, below in Cyrillic script 1000 Togrog, in Latin script MONGOLIA. On the silver coin 1 oz .999 SILVER, on the gold coin 0.5 g .9999 GOLD.
Background
CIT has been issuing the Iconic Revolutionaries series since 2014. It honors people whose actions changed and (more or less likely) improved our world. The seventh and last issue is dedicated to Mother Teresa, who is also known as the “Saint of the Gutters”. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and the Catholic Church canonized her in 2016.
Mother Teresa was a Sister of Loreto and devoted to educating young Indian women in Kolkata when the India-Pakistan partition uprooted some 20 million people in 1947. Hindus were not welcome in Islamic Pakistan. The refugees experienced next to no support in India. Thus, Mother Teresa was confronted with the misery of the sick and the dying on the streets of Kolkata on a daily basis. In view of their pain, she founded hospices to allow the poorest of the poor to die with dignity. Although modern development aid may pursue different goals, it was she who drew the world’s attention to the misery of India’s homeless.
CIT dedicates an impressive silver coin to Mother Teresa, showing her in the habit of the Missionaries of Charity, a congregation she founded herself. The religious habit is inspired by the clothes Mother Teresa wore during her work in the 1950s: a white sari with three blue stripes representing poverty, obedience, and chastity.
Whereas all previous issues of the Revolutionaries series were colored in shades of gray, Mother Teresa’s sari is depicted featuring its original blue color. Thanks to state-of-the-art smartminting technology, her portrait was transformed into a realistic, touching image, whose eyes seem to follow the observer wherever they go with loving concentration. This makes the frontal portrait a prime example for the utmost that can be achieved in terms of coin imagery. The quality of the portrait, which was not reduced in the slightest for the small gold coin of 0.5 g, is a masterpiece of minting technology, too.
Further Information
www.cit.li/coins/mother-teresa
www.cit.li/coins/mother-teresa-gold-2
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