2020 BASKETBALL COMMEMORATIVE COINS

Next year coin collectors will have the opportunity to add a third dome-shaped U.S. commemorative coin to their collections following the 2014 Baseball Hall of Fame and 2019 Apollo 11 programs. The familiar trio of a clad half dollar, silver dollar, and gold $5 coin will be issued to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding in 1959 of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

James Naismith was a Canadian-American physician who invented basketball and had a strong commitment to the values of the game (which include respect, teamwork, perseverance, honesty, etc.).

Don Senecal, who has served as the Hall of Fame’s Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Finance since 1998, said the organization is very excited about the forthcoming U.S. Mint coin program, which he anticipates will be popular with basketball fans. Like the HOF’s president, John Doleva, he previously worked for Spaulding Sporting Goods.

Mr. Senecal said the proposed designs, which will be shared by each of the coins, are “very artistic” and that during meetings of the coin design review committees this summer he indicated a preference for the concave obverse design of three players (one male, one female, and one in a wheelchair) reaching for a basketball.

This design was also the recommendation of both the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and the Commission on Fine Arts. He likes the way the design represents “the diversity of the game — one that anyone can play” — and the way the design emphasizes the inclusiveness of basketball in a way that a design showing only male players would not. As for the two convex reverse designs being considered, he said he likes the one with the basketball and net, also favored by the CFA. The CCAC prefers one that shows the side of a basketball.

To read the complete article, see:
Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame plans year-long promotion of 2020 basketball commemorative coins (http://news.coinupdate.com/naismith-basketball-hall-of-fame-plans-year-long-promotion-of-2020-basketball-commemorative-coins/)

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