The 40th Coin of the Year (COTY) Awards were announced at the ANA’s World’s Fair of Money® (WFM). Presented by World Coin News and sponsored by The Journal of East Asian Numismatics and the WFM, the competition recognizes and encourages outstanding coin design and innovation worldwide.
A panel of 100 judges determined the top 2022-dated pieces in 10 categories, plus the overall champion, which went to Austria’s “Black Hole” 20 euro with a convex/concave shape. A cone appears to rise from the center of the obverse, representing the curvature of space-time, while the reverse depicts a black-hole vortex with a colorized spiral. This show-stopping piece also won the “Best Silver Coin” category. The awards were bestowed at Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center on August 9.
“While the World Money Fair [in Berlin] provided a wonderful environment for COTY and we cherish those years and the friendships they produced, we are looking for something new with the ANA,” says Tom Michael, COTY co-coordinator. “We are looking forward to our new relationship with the World’s Fair of Money as an opportunity to encourage collectors and mints to come together in a new forum to exchange ideas about coin collecting and production.”
Winning Coins
The 2022-dated winners in each category are as follows:
MOST HISTORICALLY
SIGNIFICANT COIN
Monnaie de Paris
Silver 10 euro, “Pasteur”
BEST CONTEMPORARY EVENT COIN
The Royal Mint
Cupro-nickel 50 pence with color
printing, “50 Years of Pride”
BEST GOLD COIN
South African Mint
Gold 50 rand, “The Lion”
BEST SILVER COIN
Austrian Mint
Silver 20 euro, “The Black Hole”
The Black Hole 20 euro. (Photo: The Austrian Mint)
BEST CROWN COIN
Bank of Greece
Silver 10 euro,
“The Antikythera Mechanism”
BEST CIRCULATING COIN
Royal Australian Mint
Aluminum-bronze 2 dollar, “Honey Bee”
BEST BIMETALLIC COIN
Austrian Mint
Silver-niobium 25 euro,
“Extraterrestrial Life”
MOST ARTISTIC COIN
Royal Australian Mint
Silver 5 dollar, “Beauty, Rich and
Rare—The Great Barrier Reef”
MOST INNOVATIVE COIN
Royal Canadian Mint
Silver 50 dollar, “Canadian Ghost Ship”
Canadian Ghost Ship 50 dollar. (Photo: Royal Canadian Mint)
MOST INSPIRATIONAL COIN
National Bank of Ukraine
Silver 10 hryvnia, “In Unity, Strength”
A version of this article appears in the October 2023 issue of The Numismatist (money.org).