| Description : The coin designed by Orietta Rossi depicts an astrolabe
which reproduced the rotating sky so enabled the calculation of the positions of stars. It is divided into four quadrants.
The first quadrant (top right) shows Michelangelo (1475‐1564)who painted the creation of the sun, the moon and the
plants on the ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel (painted around 1510). In the second quadrant (upper left) the two
telescopes (90 and 130 cm long respectively) built by the polymath Galileo Galilei in 1609 and houses in the
Museo Galileo in Florence. In the third quadrant (lower left) below the astrolabe indicator can be seen the mint mark "R"
of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome, in the fourth quadrant (lower right) a
reflecting telescope. Below it a sun with a halo of rays, a crescent moon, planets and stars and the year of issue "2009"
are shown. The logos "O.ROSSI" of the designer and "M.C.C. INC." (INC. = Incisore / Engraver) of the engraver Maria
Carmela Colaneri appear to the right and left of it respectively. At the bottom there is a semi‐circle with
"ANNO INTERNAZIONALE DELL' ASTRONOMIA" (International Year of Astronomy) and at the top right there are the words
"CITTÀ DEL VATICANO" (Vatican City). |
