A one-kilogram gold coin struck in 2009 for the following year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., was among the top-earning lots of a recent sale by Heritage Auctions.
Struck by the Royal Canadian Mint with a low mintage of 50, the coin brought $90,000 US (about $117,200 Cdn.) as Lot 33079 of the Nov. 5-6 auction. It was the highest price paid among the sale’s nearly 40 Canadian lots.
With a face value of $2,500, the coin was certified as Proof-69 (with an “Ultra Cameo” designation) by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), a Florida-based third-party grading service. The reverse features a Canadian landscape with both organic and human-made elements while the obverse depicts Queen Elizabeth II alongside the Vancouver Olympic logo – an inukshuk – plus the year-date, face value and country and monarch name.
The coin’s obverse (shown) features the official Vancouver Olympics logo beside the right-facing effigy of Queen Elizabeth II.
As of Nov. 12, the gold price is nearly $79,500 a kilogram.
The sale’s top-earning lot was an 1826 British £5 proof gold coin certified as Proof-66 “Ultra Cameo” by NGC. Described by auctioneers as “astonishing,” the coin brought $360,000 US (about $468,700 Cdn.) as Lot 33174.