Puzzlers and codebreakers can turn their minds to solving a new mystery message from today, using the Royal Australian Mint's latest coin release. It honours the Australian Army's 'signallers', the secretive men and women who have overseen critical military communications from semaphore to cyber-space since 1925.
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00:00The $1 gold coin celebrates the centenary of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals.
00:07Technical specialists who secure and relay critical communications, listen to and interfere with enemy transmissions,
00:14and provide cyber support for Australian Defence Force operations around the world.
00:19107,000 Australians have worn the uniform under the Signals banner.
00:25Coin designer Adam Ball has incorporated plenty of symbolism, including the Roman messenger god Mercury with his caduceus,
00:32a globe, and Latin motto Surtacito, sure and swift, while a background of Morse and binary code creates an encrypted message.
00:41More than 107,000 Australian men and women have pulled on the Jimmy badge,
00:46and how wonderful to see the Mint capture that badge in a different form under some remarkable artwork.
00:52Just 50,000 have been minted and since going on sale at 8.30am today, plenty have been snapped up.
01:00I think there is a lot of interest in this coin, particularly because the design is so intricate
01:06and it has that extra element of surprise with that Morse and binary code worked into the design.
01:13The Mint says this code is easier to crack than this one,
01:17a 50 cent piece released in 2022 to honour the Australian Signals Directorate, with four layers of encryption.
01:25So far though, even the Head of Corps is stumped.
01:28Have you cracked the hidden message?
01:30I have not, no.
01:32Brigadier Limmer says those who do, should get in touch.
01:36I think there's a great opportunity for someone who might be interested in seeing some of the secrets that we might have
01:42and how we do them, to come and join the Royal Australian Corps of Signals.
01:46Potential for a little to go a long way.