Goalball 50p

Description

Front Design:
A goalball player mid-throw, with the London 2012 Paralympic logo above and the denomination “50 PENCE” below. Designed by Jonathan Wren.

Obverse Design:
Queen Elizabeth II portrait by Ian Rank-Broadley.
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More about the Goalball 50p

Issued as one of the 29 Olympic 50p designs to commemorate the games in London 2012. Each 50p features a different Olympic sport.

Goalball was added to the 1976 Summer Paralympic Games in Toronto, Canada. The sport is designed for athletes with impaired vision and involves teams of three attempting to throw an audible ball into the opposing  team’s goal. Players use the sound of the ball to find it, throw it, and roll it into the other team’s goal. There is no able bodied version of this game. 

The winning design chosen by the Royal Mint belonged to Jonathan Wren, an animator from Buckinghamshire, who created a design which he felt captured the essence of the fast paced sport with a bold image, whizz lines for speed and a bell to represent the sound used to locate the ball.

This is one of three paralympic sports featured in the 50p Olympic coins.