COIN OF THE YEAR CRITERIA

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V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 6, February 9, 2020, Article 15

Let's see if I have this right:

Create an object such as a work of art like a small sculpture, preferably round.

Since it cannot be spent at the store to buy anything that way, you slap a denomination on it.

Then you call it a "coin".

What's next? Engrave a denomination on the forehead of a small statue of Lincoln or the Queen or SBA so you can sell it to coin collectors?

What happened to the days when they actually judged "coins?"

When did we lose the word "circulating" in the judging?

For clarification on the Coin of the Year rules, I reached out to Thomas Michael of Numismatic News. -Editor

Any legal tender coin is acceptable for Coin of the Year nomination. This has been true for all 37 years of COTY competition. When a government authorizes a coin in any shape, style or composition, be it for circulation or not, it is still a coin.

Creating a small piece of sculpture, slapping on a denomination and calling it a coin, as your writer mentions, would produce a fantasy piece, ineligible for COTY competition.

The basic criticism in this letter rests in the notion that only circulating coins are actual coins. This ignores all non-circulating legal tender coinage, which eliminates the vast majority of commemorative issues.

Coin of the Year provides criteria for nominating and judging in ten specific categories. One of the ten categories is for Best Circulating Coinage. Another, Best Bi-Metallic Coinage often contains many circulating coins.

Many of the other categories relate to commemorative themes such as Most Historically Significant, Best Contemporary, Most Artistic and Most Inspirational, any of which can contain circulating types alongside coins produced in precious metals.

Of the remaining four categories; Best Gold and Best Silver obviously host non-circulating coins. The Best Crown category centers on a diameter range and the Most Innovative category seeks to give recognition to technological and stylistic developments in coin production.

The goal of the COTY program is to honor and encourage outstanding coin design and marketing efforts worldwide. We hope these awards spark creativity, imagination and significant development in coin production and promotion.

Thanks for clarifying the rules, and that they have not changed over the years (although the categories have evolved). Many collectors rail against the use of the word "coin" for anything other than a circulating piece issued by a government and used in daily commerce. I personally would have no problem labeling most NCLT as medals. But language is by nature fluid and imprecise. I once railed myself whenever the U.S. cent was referred to as a "penny". I've thrown in the towel on that fight. Everyone knows what is meant. Someday nothing like traditional coins will be used in commerce but I suspect the word will continue to live on, as will COTY in some shape and form.

Below is a bit of the history of COTY from the Numismatic News web site. See also the earlier E-Sylum articles on Don Scarinci's 2015 book, Coin of the Year. -Editor

Coin of the Year, an award for excellence in coinage design first issued in 1984 by Krause Publications in Iola, Wisconsin, has become the ultimate international recognition of mints and their artists, growing into the community's most coveted award for contemporary world coins.

Today, artists and mints worldwide openly compete for one of the Krause Coin of the Year categories. The announcement of the Coin of the Year is one of the highlights of the annual World Money Fair and the winner in internationally celebrated. any remaining mintage of the winner quickly sells out and coin values rise dramatically on the secondary market. this is, indeed, solid evidence of the global acceptance, standing and success of the annual award.

The Coin of the Year award had a humble origin as a pet project of Krause Publications' founder Chester “Chet” Krause and former Krause Publications' President and CEO Clifford “Cliff” Mishler. by highlighting medallic art with merit, Mishler hoped to encourage world mints to improve the art of coins. Few could have imagined how the brainchild of these two pioneering men would be so well received today.

An international panel of judges nominates and votes for coins in each category. Category winners then compete for the grand price – the Krause Coin of the Year.