2022 50c Henry Lawson - The Loaded Dog Uncirculated Coin

Though his best work would be valued by modern critics as comparable with that of the great short story writers, Henry Lawson’s early years were not encouraging. His education was brief and shadowed by partial deafness, which, in 1881 became an incurable hearing loss.

Nevertheless, he heard and was fascinated by the rhythms of the balladists, and his own first verse, 'A Song of the Republic' (1887) and the truculent hammer-blow rhythms of ‘Faces in the Street’ were enthusiastically received. His first story, ‘His Father’s Mate’ (Bulletin 1888) showed promise and he followed it in 1892 with one of the great Australian stories, ‘The Drover’s Wife’. When Bulletin editor, J. F. Archibald, recognised Lawson’s potential promise as a writer and gave him £5 and a rail ticket to Bourke, Lawson set out (1892) on a journey that would be of critical creative importance.

While The Billy Boils (1896) brought together the best of his prose. In later work, Lawson wrote at greater length. The Joe Wilson series brilliantly evokes the nuances of married life in the bush, disregarding plot in favour of a realist portrayal of men and women under pressure. Meanwhile, in his verse he turned the same realist focus on bush romanticism, opposing Banjo Paterson’s cavalier adventurers with the solitary figure of a man on foot, carrying a swag.

Coin Highlights:

• Design depicts the beloved story by Henry Lawson: The Loaded Dog
• Struck to the Mint’s uncirculated standard
• Mintage of 5,000 individual coins
• Australian legal tender