Handpainted coin made by Diana Bates

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Coins, Homemade toys
Date: 1935 - 1945
Place: Yarra Glen, Victoria, Australia
Materials: Metal - non specific, Paint - non specific
Collection: Diana Mary Bates collection
Accession number: 2020.0006.0043

Description

A circular, handpainted metal coin. The coin is a heavily tarnished silver coloured 1 Kreuzer dated 1848. One face is overpainted with a woman with long black hair wearing a green and pink dress, a green hat, and a white cape. She is holding a crook in one hand.

About the collection

This collection comprises three commercially-manufactured dolls and handmade toys belonging to Diana Mary Bates (1930-2019) during her 1930s and 1940s childhood spent in Christmas Hills, Victoria. The dolls were given to Diana after her family home was destroyed in the Black Friday bushfire of 13 January 1939. The toys handmade by Diana include paper dolls, painted coins, keepsake boxes and doilies used to support a range of imaginative games. The collection is supported by photographs and archival material relating to the Bates family. The collection is largely in fair to good condition. This collection offers insight into a child's introspective play and the characteristics of 'make-do' enterprise using found or available materials. Play is integral to the ways that children in all times and cultures have explored and understood their environment. This is a rare example of a series of objects assembled by a child for her own entertainment, comfort and education within the social deprivations of the Great Depression and the Second World War. It also demonstrates how Diana's childhood interests and artistic talent foreshadowed her lifelong interest in storytelling and the creative arts. Donated by Andrea Beaumont

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:20:29 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-19. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.