Limited edition Ashes gold medals available for charitable auction
To celebrate the Ashes Series 2009, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Royal Mint joined to produce an official licensed limited edition gold medal.
Only 150 have been produced and each one is packaged in a special presentation case with a certificate hand-signed by England captain Andrew Strauss.
Medals 001?005 were specially engraved with the venue and date and were used for the coin toss prior to the commencement of each Test match. Medal 001 was used at Cardiff, 002 at Lord's, 003 at Edgbaston, 004 at Headingley Carnegie and 005 at The Brit Oval. They are a priceless and notable memento of cricket's most significant and longstanding rivalries - but now each of the medals is available to fans who wish to remember this thrilling npower Ashes Series with the proceeds going to five ECB partner charities.
ECB Chief Executive, David Collier, said: "We want to provide the public with a unique opportunity to own a piece of cricketing history, whilst creating a legacy for our official charities, therefore we have decided to auction the 5 npower Ashes Series medals individually online."
The proceeds of the auctions will be going to the following five ECB partner charities:
(i) Cricket Against Hunger is a partnership between the ECB and the United Nations World Food Programme to raise awareness about global hunger through initiatives developed with the England team during international tours.
(ii) Chance to shine is the Cricket Foundation's campaign to bring the educational benefits of competitive cricket to a third of state schools by 2015. Chance to shine operates through the ECB's 39 Cricket County Boards and is delivered by coaches from ECB's 'Focus' clubs.
(iii) The Lord's Taverners helps young people, particularly those with social, environmental, physical or learning disadvantages, to enjoy cricket and other sporting and leisure activities.
(iv) The Prince's Trust has been working with the ECB since 2003 to help to engage, excite and motivate disadvantaged young people by promoting cricket's values, such as teamwork, communication and leadership to enhance the participants' learning and give them the skills to enable them to move into further education, training or employment.
(v) PCA Benevolent Fund is part of the Professional Cricket Association's on-going commitment in helping current and former players and their dependants in times of hardship, upheaval or to readjust to the world beyond the game.
All details regarding the online sale of these commemorative Ashes gold medals can be found at www.ecb.co.uk/auctions