St. Basil's the Blessed (Protection Veil of Our Lady) Cathedral. Background

St. Basil's the Blessed (Protection Veil of Our Lady) Cathedral, better known as St. Basil's (Intercession) Cathedral (Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed), stands in the south part of Moscow’s Red Square above the sloping Moskva River bank, close to the Spassky Gate of the Kremlin. It was built in the middle of the 16th century on the order of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible to commemorate the rout of the Kazan Khanate, a part of the former Golden Horde, and in thanksgiving for the victory.

Precise information about previous structures on the spot of the St. Basil's (Intercession) Cathedral has not come down to us as mediaeval Russian chroniclers made only sketchy and mutually contradictory references to wooden and stone churches, so there is a wealth of conjectures and legends.

According to one version, a wooden Trinity Church with seven transepts was founded on the sloping bank of the Moskva on the site of the future St. Basil's (Intercession) Cathedral soon after Ivan the Terrible returned from the Kazan campaign in 1552.

Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, later canonised, advised Ivan the Terrible to build a stone church on the site. The basic idea of its architectural composition also belonged to him. 

The earliest reliable reference to the construction of the St. Basil's (Intercession) Cathedral dates to autumn 1554. Presumably a wooden structure, it was built only to be dissembled six months later, giving room to a stone cathedral, whose construction began in spring 1555.

The cathedral’s architects, both Russian, were named Barma and Postnik, though some scholars conjecture that both names belonged to one man. As legend has it, Ivan IV the Terrible ordered the architects blinded after the church of fabulous beauty was built lest they create something even more beautiful and majestic. The legend was eventually exposed as groundless conjecture.

It took only six years to build the cathedral even though construction stopped in winter. A chronicle describes the miraculous appearance of a ninth side altar in the south part of the edifice after the construction was practically over. However, the ninth altar does not break the sophisticated symmetry of the building to prove that it followed the original idea of eight transepts (in fact, side churches) surrounding the central area. The cathedral was made of brick with a white stone foundation and basement, and some of the décor is made of white limestone.

Australian Dollar Coins - 1984 to 1990 Issues and Mintages

June 14, 2009

1984 saw the release of the Australian Aluminium Bronze dollar coin and the beginning of most popular coin series for Australian coin collectors. New opportunities for coin collectors (and revenue raising opportunities for the Royal Australian Mint) began in the very first year of issue with collector uncirculated grade and proof grade coins released specifically for collectors. 1986 saw the very first commemorative dollar released (the International Year of Peace). In 1988 the $2 coin was released and following this millions of dollar coins were melted down, presumably these were 1984 issues. In 1990 we saw the first silver proof dollars struck in the 1990 Masterpieces in Silver set. Truly those interested in dollar coins had a lot to watch out for!

The table below details each and every dollar coin released from 1984 to 1990. We've endeavoured to cover each way in which the coins were released, so for example, the same proof coin from one year may be available in a cased proof, the normal proof set, a coin fair proof set, and even a baby proof set!

Antiques

English, Irish, & Scottish silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

More things than are dreamt of, masterpieces of supernatural horror, from Mary Shelley to Stephen King, in literature and film

The Lost Chalice, The Real-Life Chase for One of the World's Rarest Masterpieces-a Priceless 2,500-Year-Old Artifact Depicting the Fall of Troy

Rembrandt's faith, church and temple in the Dutch golden age