A student at St Peter's Primary School, East Keilor Victoria, has been awarded a Certificate of Achievement and a prize of $10,000 for his school after being named the winning designer of the Royal Australian Mint's Primary School Student Coin Design Competition.
Year 5 student John Serrano was presented with his certificate and a school cheque at morning assembly by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Ross Cameron MP.
Mr Cameron congratulated John for his winning design of a wombat, koala and lorikeet, which will be minted on an Australian 50c collector coin and possibly a circulating coin, to be released by the Royal Australian Mint in the second half of 2004.
"John has demonstrated remarkable creativity and skill in coming up with the winning design," Mr Cameron said.
"He competed with a large field of high quality designs, with the Royal Australian Mint receiving just under 2600 designs from 800 schools around Australia."
"And I am sure St Peter's Primary School will be able to make good use of the prize money John has won for them," Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron also recognised all students who participated in the competition.
"The selection of the designs was very difficult because of the generally high standard for Primary schools.
I would like to congratulate all who took part in this competition, and especially the young designers who were ranked in the top 5.
"I also wish to thank the schools and the teachers who encouraged their students to enter this competition. Unfortunately there can only be one winner but all who entered are in a way winners'," Mr Cameron said.
The design was selected by Australians who participated in voting on the Mint's website from amongst the final top 5 designs submitted.
John has won for his school a prize of $10,000 and his initials will appear on an Australian coin. He will also receive a Proof example of the coin as well as a certificate acknowledging his success. John is 12 years old and enjoys drawing, studying nature and animals as well as a wide range of activities such as bike riding and swimming. He also watches sports such as AFL, tennis, soccer cricket and golf. John is not only a sports fan but also enjoys reading books and playing electronic games.
The top 104 designs are on display on the Mint's website (www.ramint.gov.au click on 'Primary School Design Competition – the top 104 designs selected' on the home page).
The theme of the design competition was "AUSTRALIA" and it was deliberately kept very wide to allow the maximum amount of artistic expression to the young students.