| Description : Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen (1778‐1852), scion of
the German‐Baltic noble family Bellinghausen, served in the Imperial Russian Navy. In 1819 he was commissioned to lead
the first Russian expedition to the Southern Polar region, instigated by Tsar Alexander I. During the two‐year
expedition, which he led as captain of the corvette Vostok, 29 new islands in the Pacific and Atlantic were discovered.
Bellinghausen first sighted the ice shelf surrounding Antartic on the 28th of January 1820 he then
circumnavigated and catalogued the "iced continent" for which he gained the reputation of being the discoverer of Antarctic.
A marginal sea off western Antarctica is called Bellingshausen Sea in his honour.
The coin designers Tiiu Pirsko and Mati Veermets depict the edge of the Antarctic ice shelf to the right of the
bow of the three‐masted sailing ship flying the Russian naval flag. Towards the top left in a semi circle are the words
"Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen", at the bottom the reason for the issue "ANTARKTIKA" "200", on the top right are the words
"EESTI" (Estonia) and the year of issue "2020". The coin was minted without mint marks by the Lithuanian mint Lietuvos
monetų kalykla in Vilnius. |
