QUESTION OF DESIGN

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 123, 27 May 1933, Page 14

QUESTION OF DESIGN

COMPETITION URGED

(By Telearaph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.") 1 CHRISTCHURCH, May 26. "In view of the disastrous designs of our national postage stamps, I confess that I feel some concern about the proposal to issue a New Zealand silver coinage," said Dr. G. M. Lester, president of tho Canterbury Society of Arts. "I have read the names of the* members of the advisory committee appointed by the Government with a certain amount of apprehension, for I find on the committee no one who represents art." Dr. Lester said that the announcement of the Government's intention to institute a new coinage was a matter which, of' course, had great interest for all who wero interested in art, for the reason that those who had designed coins were among the greatest craftsmen and artists of their time. From the time of the early Greek colonies in the Mediterranean, many years before Christ, up to tho accession of Queen Victoria, one could find hardly a coin or a medal that did not possess distinct, artist merit. Ono of the most beautiful instances of relief work in gold was tho large coin of Faustina the Younger, coined in Borne about 2000 years ago. • All through tho Renaissance period, there was hardly any Pope or prince whose portrait did not appear to-day on one of the medals which were struck so freely at that time. ; The tradition of an artistic coinage was maintained pretty well into the eighteenth century, said Dr. Lester, who exhibited a very fine piece of relief work—the gold £5 piece struck at the coronation of George IV, or 1111, as it appears on the coin— a specimen of which, new from the mint, he had inherited from his greatgrandfather, a member of tho British Parliament. "Since that time," continued Dr. Lester, "the design of the British coinage has been comparatively commonplace, and the present proposal seems to afford an ppportunity, if the right measures are taken, for New Zealand to produce something of real artistic merit. As everyone knows, there_ are first-class artists; and craftsmen in New Zealand, and if tho Government took' steps to make the designing of the coinage a matter of open competition, and if, moreover, a judging committee of competent artists was appointed, tho coining of silver might not only be a financial convenience to the Government, as no doubt it would be, but also it might be a lasting witness to the artistic achievement of the Dominion.