RAM 2023 $5 Beauty, Rich & Rare Twelve Apostles Silver Proof Domed Coin

Of Australia's many natural attractions - Uluru, the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park - Victoria's Twelve Apostles stand out for their majestic and rugged grandeur. Australia's First Nations people likely had their own name for what we now call the Twelve Apostles, the cluster of towering limestone stacks on Victoria's southern coastline. These stunning columns were formed over thousands of years by erosion from waves crashing onto the shoreline, steadily eroding the softer limestone. At no time since European settlement have there been more than eight Apostles in the feature, now just seven following the collapse of one stack in 2005. How exactly they came to be the Twelve Apostles is still somewhat a mystery.

English explorer George Bass named them the Sow and Piglets. Others called them The Pinnacles.

The enduring name, the Twelve Apostles, emerged in the 1880s. It's now Victoria's most visited attraction.

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