To celebrate the successful London 2012 bid and commemorate the Handover Ceremony of the Olympic Flag from Beijing to London on the 24 August 2008, the Royal Mint has struck a commemorative legal tender £2 coin available in 22 carat gold, sterling silver and base alloys.

The Design

The legal tender £2 coin features on its reverse the Olympic Flag and the London 2012 logo. This design has been created by the Royal Mint Engraving Team and has been authorised by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Surrounding the central design are the words ‘BEIJING 2008′ and ‘LONDON 2012′ along its outer ring, set against a backdrop of lines reminiscent of an athletics track.

The edge of the Handover Ceremony £2 coin features the inscription I CALL UPON THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD.

The 2008 United Kingdom Handover Ceremony £2 Brilliant Uncirculated Presentation Pack

This specially designed presentation pack is a delightful and affordable way of commemorating the outstanding success of the London 2012 bid and the official Handover Ceremony. (more…)

The year 2008 will mark the Bicentenary of the War of Independence that brought Spain into combat with the forces of the First French Empire and triggered the uprising of May 2, 1808.

The Royal Spanish Mint has chosen to join in the celebration of this event of importance for Spain, which marked the beginning of a new historical cycle and produced a change in the previous political systems.

The five coins come blister-packed so as to wholly preserve the engraving and luster, and are presented in a deluxe jewel case together with the respective certificate of authenticity issued by the Royal Spanish Mint.

The coins may be acquired as single items, as a silver set comprising the Cincuentin and the three 8-real coins, or as the full set consisting of all five coins.

8-Escudos Gold  

The obverse features a reproduction of the oil painting “General José de Palafox on horseback” by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.

The reverse shows an adaptation of the engraving entitled “How brave!”, one of the most dramatic plates from Goya’s “Disasters of War” series, housed in the National Chalcography.

Cincuentín Silver

The obverse reproduces the oil painting entitled “May 3, 1808 in Madrid: the executions by firing squad on the mountain called Príncipe Pío “, painted by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.

The reverse depicts an adaptation from Goya’s oil painting “May 2, 1808 in Madrid: the battle with the Mamelukes”, housed in the Prado Museum. (more…)

By Nicole Garrison-Sprenger
It could double as a shot put, but it’s worth a little too much to chuck in the dirt.

A 22-pound gold coin commemorating the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing is waiting in Burnsville for someone to plunk down $1 million for a piece of history. Now, if you’re a big fan of the Olympics, you could fly to Beijing, stay for a week, watch the Games live and buy a T-shirt for considerably less. But a million dollars for a coin that isn’t even old?

It turns out, a solid-gold coin that weighs as much as a 1-year-old child doesn’t come along every day.

The coin released by the China Mint is the biggest Olympic coin made to date, said Douglas Mudd, a curator at the American Numismatic Association money museum. “Twenty-two pounds — that’s a lot of gold,” he said. At present, Mudd said, “The coin market is very hot. We’re seeing record prices at practically every auction.”

Gold is selling for about $928 an ounce, which would make the jumbo coin that Burnsville-based GovMint.com is selling worth roughly $245,000 melted down. (Precious metals are measured in troy pounds, which contain 12 troy ounces.) Plus, the coin — with the Beijing 2008 Games logo on one side and an image of a Chinese temple towering above Olympic athletes on the other — is one of only 29 issued, and the only one released for sale in the United States. Seven inches in diameter, it comes in an ornate carved box of African Blackwood with a 35-pound carved stone dragon perched on top.

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The Japanese government is creating 94 types of commemorative 500 and 1,000 yen coins, including special coins for each prefecture. The designs for Kyoto and Shimane (pictured) were announced by Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga.

The 1,000-yen coins for Kyoto and Shimane will be sterling silver, weigh 31.1 grams and measure 40 millimeters in diameter. The government will mint a total of 100,000 of each coin.

The Kyoto coin features a scene from the classic work penned by Murasaki Shikibu (Lady Murasaki), depicting romances among members of the court in medieval Kyoto.

It will be issued before the millennial anniversary Nov. 1 of the Tale of Genji, which first appeared in recorded history in 1008.

The Shimane coin will be minted to celebrate the addition last year of the centuries-old Iwami silver mine to the World Heritage List of the U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The reverse side of the coins will have a uniform design for all 47 prefectures, featuring snow crystals, cherry blossoms and a crescent moon.

These will be among 94 types of 500- and 1000-yen coins for each of Japan’s 47 prefectures that will be released over the next eight years to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the going into force of the Local Autonomy Law, according to the Finance Ministry.

The government decided on the design of the two coins after releasing the Hokkaido coin in time for this year’s July 7-9 Group of Eight summit to be held in the Lake Toya resort area there. (more…)