Off to Germany
I have to catch a plane later this morning, so it is a short time in the office. I am going to Berlin, Germany, to attend the World Money Fair.
In addition to usual show duties, I will be there with three other Krause Publications staffers to give the 2008 Coin of the Year Award. Canada is the winner of the Coin of the Year Award, which will be given for the 25th time on Feb. 2.
The winning coin is actually a four-coin set of $50 palladium pieces dated 2006 that show the Big Bear and Little Bear constellations in the Canadian night sky at four seasonal points during the year, with a nice stream and pine trees on the ground to frame them.
The International panel of judges were impressed and made the set the Coin of the Year, after having first voted the set as Most Innovative.
To someone from Wisconsin, it looks like a scene from home, so I am pleased with the judging.
There is an innovation of our own this year. We have added a People’s Choice Coin of the Year Award and conducted the voting online through the NumisMaster Web site.
The result of this first effort was the victory of a 50-forint coin from Hungary that marked the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising against the Soviets. That heroic and tragic resistance met with tanks and brutal suppression.
However, the Hungary of today can mark that dark chapter as a point on the road to the freedom the country now enjoys.
Congratulations to both nations.
