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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 2823965, member: 10461&quot;](If you will permit a personal anecdote with a tiny numismatic tie-in)</p><p><br /></p><p>Look at the designer&#039;s initials below the arms on that 1967 Tongan Pa&#039;anga.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/tonga-1967-paanga-reverse-jpg.663634/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>See the &quot;D B&quot; there?&nbsp; Those are the initials of the designer, <a href="http://bahaichronicles.org/dudley-m-blakely-and-elsa-blakely/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://bahaichronicles.org/dudley-m-blakely-and-elsa-blakely/" rel="nofollow">Dudley Moore Blakely</a> (1902-1982), who was a friend of my family.&nbsp; He and his wife Elsa (&quot;Judy&quot;) were originally from England, I believe.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://bahaichronicles.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/bwns_5227-0.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Mr. Blakely, a sculptor and gifted artist, designed Tonga&#039;s first coins in the early 1960s.&nbsp; In the summer of 1979, my parents arranged for me to learn wood carving from him, as he had his sculptor&#039;s workshop attached to his house here on St. Simons Island, Georgia.&nbsp; (Unfortunately, I did not prove an especially adept student at the craft, but I did carve a heraldic eagle plaque that my mother still has.)</p><p><br /></p><p>It was a wonderful house, full of mementos from the Blakelys&#039; world travels, and the decor had a particularly Polynesian feel.&nbsp; Instead of carpeting in their living room, for instance, they had grass mats.&nbsp; The walls were covered with Mr. Blakely&#039;s large paintings of Pacific island scenes.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was only 13 at the time, so the history and culture of a lot of the things I was seeing there were lost on me, but I was already collecting coins, and Mr. Blakely not only showed me the original models for the dies of Tonga&#039;s first gold coins, but <i>a proof set of the very first strikes!</i></p><p><br /></p><p>He died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1982 and is buried here on St. Simons Island.&nbsp; His wife Elsa (&quot;Judy&quot;) ended up in a nursing home; she died in 1988 and is buried next to him.&nbsp; The person who had power of attorney over their estate sold their house and its contents, so somebody today owns Dudley Moore Blakely&#039;s personal proof set containing the very first strikes of the first Tongan gold coins (Tonga&#039;s first coins, <i>period</i>), and likely doesn&#039;t even know it came from his estate.</p><p><br /></p><p>At least I got to see and hold them.</p><p><br /></p><p>One day I need to buy one of the proof gold pieces that Mr. Blakely designed.&nbsp; They&#039;re rather expensive, of course.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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