On the money: Yeats is perfect choice for special-edition coin
Dublin 25th January 2012: Pauline Swords, Yeats Curator, National Gallery of Ireland pictured at the launch by the Central Bank of a €10 collector coin in honour of the artist, Jack B. Yeats. Yeats was also Ireland’s first Olympic medallist and won a silver medal in 1924 for his painting The Liffey Swim. Picture Jason Clarke Photography. No Repro Fee.
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RENOWNED painter Jack B Yeats has been immortalised in a special-edition coin.
The brother of Nobel prize-winning poet William Butler Yeats features on a new €10 collector coin launched by the Central Bank yesterday.
The silver coin features a portrait of the artist looking at a sketch of a horse -- a subject often depicted in his paintings.
His image was chosen to represent Ireland as part of the 2012 European Silver Coin programme, in which each EU member states selects a native artist to be honoured.
Gerry Quinn, chief operations officer at the Central Bank of Ireland, said it was fitting that Mr Yeats was chosen to represent Ireland during the Olympic year because he was the first Irish person to win a medal at the Olympics.
Mr Yeats won a silver medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics for his painting 'The Liffey Swim'. Works of architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture inspired by sport were allocated Olympic medals between 1912 and 1952.
The artist's grandniece Catriona Yeats said: "The family is delighted. Michael Guilfoyle's design is impressive and striking in its simplicity and the coin is a fine tribute to Jack B."
The coins cost €46 and are available through the Central Bank on Dame Street in Dublin or through its website at www.centralbank.ie.
- Allison Bray
Irish Independent
