COIN OF THE YEAR 2008 – winners of the 2010 COTY Award drawn
by Ursula Kampmann
January 21, 2010 – Each year the US-American journal World Coin News awards the COTY Award celebrating the year’s best coins. An international panel of judges selects from hundreds of nominated coins and assesses the most successful designs and awards prices in 10 categories. From these 10 victorious coins the Coin of the Year was chosen at the beginning of January.
Fig. 1
On January 12th, 2010, Scott Tappa, editor of World Coin News of Krause Publications, announced that this year the mint of Latvia issued not only the best gold coin but also the most beautiful one. This coin shows a somewhat “old fashioned” design since the image was created as early as 1922 by Teodors Zalkalns but was never used. On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Latvian lats currency after the country regained independence from the Soviet Union, the officials resorted to the old design to create a new commemorative coin.
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The coin which honours best a historical event of more than 100 years in the past was a silver 100 tenge from Kazakhstan showing an image of Gengis Khan.
Fig. 3
As the best commemorative coin marking a contemporary event – that is from less than 100 years ago – the 10 sheqalim from Israel commemorating 60 years of statehood of the modern country was rated.
Fig. 4
The best silver coin in 2008 was made in Germany and honours the 125th anniversary of Franz Kafka.
Fig. 5
The Austrian 10 euro silver coin for Abbey Klosterneuberg was voted the best “crown”. With Krause, “crown” is a coin with a minimum diameter of 34 millimetres and made of silver or a base metal silver substitute.
Fig. 6
From the USA came the most popular coin. It is an investment coin, the 1$ Silver Eagle.
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The new 2 Euro piece from Cyprus depicting the Archaic figurine on its national side the jury rated the Best Trade Coin used in circulation.
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Particularly valued is the award in the Most Artistic Coin category. Poland was victorious with its 200 zloty gold coin commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Fig. 9
The Most Inspirational Coin was a $2.500 gold piece for the Canadian Olympics.
Fig. 10
Even after some years have passed, the jury still regards the series of Austrian niobium coins innovative. The 25 euro pieces on the “fascination light” consisting of a green shimmering niobium centre topped the category of the Most Innovative Coin.
Hungary winning the People’s Choice the third time in a row is something quite annoying. These victories are not owed to a higher quality of the coins the Hungarian Mint produces but to the balloting system at Krause’s allowing anyone to vote as often as he pleases. Already in 2008, therefore, the Hungarian old boy network made sure that “its” mint came out victorious. Whereas then, it was all about a coin commemorating the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and it was relatively easy to comprehend the motivation, public appreciation diminished in 2009, when a Hungarian clique made the 5.000 forint piece “Gyula Castle” win the People’s Choice. This all so direct democratic award is finally and altogether compromised in 2010, when Hungary once again drags the trophy home, this time for a silver piece honouring the Tokaj region.
Anyone who would like to make a nomination which pieces made in 2010 shall enter the competition for the COTY Award is asked to submit it to Lisa Bellavin at lisa.bellavin@fwmedia.com.
The prize-giving ceremony for the victors of 2008 will be held on January 30th, 2010, at the World Money Fair in Berlin. CoinsWeekly will report on that.
More information about the COTY Award at http://numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=9223