The Coin of the Year (COTY) Awards will celebrate its 40th anniversary with an in-person awards ceremony following a three-year pandemic hiatus.
In partnership with the American Numismatic Association, the ceremony will take place on Aug. 9 at the 2023 World’s Fair of Money in Pittsburgh, Pa. The COTY program, an international competition presented by World Coin News, recognizes “outstanding coin design and innovation in coin production worldwide,” according to organizers. The 40th anniversary program will honour coins dated 2022 in 10 categories of competition plus one overall winner decided by a global panel of judges.
“As we mark Coin of the Year’s 40-year milestone of honouring the best of the best in coins from around the world, we are excited to be celebrating with an in-person ceremony,” said COTY co-coordinator Maggie Pahl. “We welcome the World’s Fair of Money as a sponsor and look forward to holding our event in conjunction with one of the world’s premier numismatics shows.”
The Mint’s 2021 $20 Fine silver coin, ‘Black and Gold: The Grey Wolf,’ also won the ‘Best Crown Coin’ title in the COTY competition.
The COTY nominee selection process typically begins with about 500 coins from dozens of countries with a judging panel of 100 experts from around the world voting to determine 10 top coins in 10 categories of competition. The same panel then narrows the list down to 10 finalists as the winners of each category. A final vote determines one of those 10 coins to earn the top honour, the “Coin of the Year.”
Canada has won several past COTY honours, including of the “Best Crown Coin” and “Best Circulation Coin” categories earlier this year for a pair of 2021 issues. From 2010-18, the Mint won at least one category – plus two in 2011 – in each of those nine yearly competitions.
The first COTY awards were handed out in 1984, when the judges voted on 1982 coins.