October 14th, 2010 – Mint of Finland issues a coin, which incorporates hand-crafted filigree on October 15th, 2010. Mint of Finland presented the Cabbage Rabbit Filigree coin at the American Numismatic Association’s conference in Boston on August 11. The Filigree coin aroused plenty of interest in the conference. The Filigree technique has never been used in coin minting before.
The mint of Finland will issue the Cabbage Rabbit Filigree coin on October 15th. In the middle of the collector coin there is a delicate rabbit made of filigree. The Cabbage Rabbit Filigree coin is a part of the Mint of Finland’s Year of the Rabbit series. The collector coin illustrates the popular Chinese Lunar theme. Chinese astrology designates year 2011 as the Year of the Rabbit.
Filigree – traditional hand-craft art as a centerpiece for modern design?
Filigree is a delicate kind of jewel work made with twisted threads usually of silver or other alloys. The silver wire is not much bigger than the thickness of a hair so making the filigree is very intricate, requiring fine attention to detail and steady hands. The filigree technique has been used in jewelry making for thousands of years but it has never been used in coin minting before.
One of the Mint of Finland’s design techniques is combining coin with fragile materials that haven’t been used in coin making earlier. “The Mint of Finland is the only mint in the world that offers collector coins minted with joining technology. The technology is developed and patented by the Mint of Finland. Before filigree the Mint of Finland has joined also stone and coin”, comments the Mint of Finland’s Collector Item’s vice president Mika Peippo. The patent number of the joining technology is FI 118505B.