2017-05-24 Wed

Pobjoy Mint minted 2,002 £2 Larsen B Proof Sterling Silver coins in Britain to create awareness about global warming on the Antarctic. The coin features Larsen B Ice Shelf with a hologram effect. The obverse features the common portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

The hologram shows a part of the ice shelf that broke 15 years ago. The breaking is visible on tilting the coin. A cracked ice effect is featured on the rim. The mintage limit 2,002 represents the year when Larsen B Sector collapsed.

The 10,000-year old Larsen Ice Shelf has three sectors situated in the northwest Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula. During the period of 31st January to March 2002, 3,250 km2 of ice, 220m thick, disappeared. Experts have predicted that the rest would collapse by 2020. Larsen A collapsed in 1995 and experts predict that the fourth-largest ice shelf in Antarctica - Larsen C could also collapse by end of the century. A rift in the shelf that formed in 2016 is over 130km with a width of 91m and depth of 500m.

The collapse of Larsen C will form the largest icebergs with an area of around 5,000km2. These kinds of incidents are warnings that might later lead to unimaginable disasters.