Tokelau – 2011 – 1 Dollar – Roald Amundsen (with box) (PROOF)

Description

Metal: Silver .925
Weight: 25 g
Diameter: 38.61 mm
Quality: Proof
Mintage: 2’500 pcs.

The conquest of the poles was an enthralling footrace about fame and honour, life and death. In a list of representative names such as Bering, Nansen or Shackleton one figure especially stands out: the Norwegian Roald Amundsen (1872-1928). Due to the 100th anniversary of his conquest of the South Pole Tokelau honours this arctic explorer a new commemorative edition.

Already as a small boy it was Amundsen’s dream to be the first person to stand at the North Pole. In autumn 1909, in the middle of his meticulous preparations to make his dream come true, he heard that the American Robert E. Peary had reached the North Pole on April 6th, 1909. Amundsen changed his goals and set out for the Antarctic two years later. There he delivered a dramatic footrace to the South Pole with the Englishman Robert F. Scott; 1‘500 kilometres in two months at minus 30 degrees. Amundsen had the better strategy and equipment and together with his crew he was the first person to stand at the South Pole on December 14th, 1911. When Scott arrived 35 days later the Norwegian flag showed him that his expedition was unsuccessful. On the way back the expedition turned out to be an entire disaster – Scott and his four companions lost their lives starved, exhausted and frozen to death in the Ross Ice Shelf. Whereas Amundsen returned home triumphantly and became the first national hero in young Norway.

The irony of this story is that it was never proven that Robert Peary actually stood on the North Pole in 1909. Unless otherwise Amundsen would also be the first person at the North Pole during his over flight in the airship Norge in May 1926!