Named Most Innovative Coin, Canada’s 25-cent coin depicting Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai shows the dinosaur’s skeleton when examined in darkness.
Canada’s glow-in-the-dark dinosaur skeleton coin has made it into the second round of voting in the Coin of the Year Awards.
The next round will be among coins from eight countries, each one a finalist in a specific category. Voting was done by an international panel of judges that cast their ballots online Oct. 31 to Nov. 10.
Named the Most Innovative Coin, the 25-cent dinosaur piece shows an image of a Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai – similar to a triceratops – under regular light. In the dark, the skeleton of the animal stands out with a soft green glow. France and Australia are the top Coin of the Year contenders, each with two winners. For France, its Yves Klein €10 silver coin, which shows a distinctive blue hand against a silver background, was acclaimed Most Artistic Coin. Top honours in the Best Silver Coin category went to the French ocean liner design, Le France. For Australia, victory comes in the Best Crown category – coins of approximately silver-dollar size – for a silver $5 coin that shows the Southern Cross in a blue sky on the reverse, and for Best Circulating Coin with an aluminum-bronze $1 coin proclaiming the International Year of the Farmer.
The other category winners are: Greece, Most Historically Significant, silver €10, Greek Culture – Socrates; Britain, Best Contemporary Event, silver £10, London Olympic Games; Finland, Best Bimetallic Coin, silver and gold €50, Helsinki; Italy, Best Gold Coin, €20, Fauna in Art; and Alderney, Most Inspirational, copper-nickel £5, Remembrance Day. The international panel of mint masters, artists and numismatists will now vote to determine which of the 10 coins will be named the Coin of the Year in 2014. The winner will be announced as soon as the ballots are officially tabulated following the Dec. 8 voting deadline.
The Coin of the Year winner, as well as all 10 category winners, will be recognized at a special ceremony held Feb. 8 at the World Money Fair in Berlin, Germany. All coins in the competition are dated 2012. Nominations can be made by anyone. Created by World Coin News to encourage great art, usefulness and innovation in world coinage and to recognize the mints that create these qualities, the award was first given in 1984.