The Central Bank has announced that it will launch €15 limited edition silver-proof commemorative coin to honour Ireland’s only scientific Nobel Laureate, Ernest Walton.
The coin will be released on January 13th and features a design that pays tribute to Prof Walton’s ground-breaking achievements in the field of physics.
The first recipients of the coin will be the winners of this year’s BT Young Scientist of the Year competition, which will be announced in Dublin’s RDS tomorrow.
Director of Credit Institutions at the Central Bank, Sharon Donnery, said: “This is the second in our Science and Invention series and honours one of Ireland’s great Nobel Prize winners, Ernest Walton.”
“Walton, with John Douglas Cockcroft, shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work on the transmutation of a nucleus by artificially accelerated atomic particles. The design on the coin gives an artist’s impression and explanation to the equation we all know, E=mc2,"Ms Donnery added.
The limited-issue coin was designed by artist Rory Breslin, and 6,000 units will be minted. The coins go on sale to the general public from January 14th at a cost of €44.
