Latest Mint Releases

RCM Honours Canadian Artist

The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has issued its latest circulating commemorative $2 coin, honouring influential 20th century visual artist Jean-Paul Riopelle. Released to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, the coin marks the artist’s contribution to Canada’s cultural heritage.

The reverse design features a fragment of one of Riopolle’s most famous artworks, a 40 metre long and 30 panelled fresco titled ‘L’Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg’. The fresco features the recurring theme of bird- like silhouettes, two of which – from Panel 29 – appear on the coin.

The obverse of the coin features the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, designed by Susanna Blunt.

Mintage has been limited to 3 million coins, with 2 million of these produced as coloured versions.

Slovakia Issues New Circulating Commemorative

Produced by Mincovna Kremnica, Slovakia’s latest circulating commemorative €2 coin marks the bicentennial of the establishment of a horse-drawn express postal service between the Vienna and Bratislava.

Designed by Slovakian artist Mária Poldaufová, the obverse depicts a horse- drawn mail carriage from the side, with the years and places of importance inscribed below. As with all other circulating commemoratives issued by eurozone countries, the new coin has the same technical specifications as previous €2 releases, with the reverse design remaining the standard Map of Europe design by Luc Luycx.

This is the second and final circulating commemorative to be issued in Slovakia this year, with the first released in March to commemorate a century since the first blood transfusion in the country. Overall mintage of both coins was set at 1 million pieces each.

Final AWQ 2023 Coin Released

The US Mint has released the final coin of this year’s American Women Quarters programme, the tenth coin in total. Widely considered the first American prima ballerina, Maria Tallchief broke barriers as a Native American ballet dancer, exhibiting strength and resilience both on and off the stage.

The reverse design depicts Maria Tallchief spotlit in balletic pose. Her Osage name, which translates to ‘Two Standards’, is inscribed in Osage orthography underneath.

As with all other quarters in this series, the obverse side of each coin depicts a portrait of George Washington, originally composed and sculpted by Laura Gardin Fraser to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth.

RCM Issues Second Single Mine Bullion Coin

In addition to its latest circulating commemorative, the RCM has also issued its second single mine gold bullion coin.

Whilst the first was composed entirely of gold extracted by Agnico Eagle at its Meliadine Mine in Nunavut (see CMN November, December 2022), the newest single mine coin is entirely composed of gold originating from Newmont Corporation’s Éléonore gold mine in Northern Québec.

The reverse of the $50 one-ounce coin features the hallmark of the Mint’s Maple Leaf family of bullion coins, Walter Ott’s detailed engraving of a Sugar Maple leaf. Radial lines surround the central design, with a maple leaf-shaped security mark micro-engraved underneath. The security mark contains the engraving of the number ‘23’ – visible only under magnification – to denote the year of issue. The privy mark, of a hand cradling a globe, symbolises the single-source provenance of the coin’s 99.99% pure gold.

The coin is protected by Bullion DNA™, a proprietary technology that creates a unique digital fingerprint that can be used to authenticate each item.

‘With this new single mine coin, made of directly traceable gold from Newmont’s Éléonore mine to our gold refinery in Ottawa, we are demonstrating continued excellence in terms of precious metal sourcing, refining and manufacturing’, noted Marie Lemay, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.

New £5 Coin Pays Tribute to Mary Seacole

The Royal Mint (TRM) has released a new £5 coin dedicated to the iconic Crimean era nurse and entrepreneur Mary Seacole. Created with the collaborative support of The Mary Seacole Trust, it is the first UK coin dedicated to her.

The reverse design of the coin features an authentic likeness of the nurse based on a photograph from circa 1870. The obverse features the Martin Jennings effigy of King Charles III, the same artist who designed the Mary Seacole statue outside St Thomas’ Hospital London – the first statue of a named, black woman in the UK.

Collectors Coins Celebrate Children’s Literature

TRM has also launched two collectable 50p coins aimed at children.

One celebrates Raymond Briggs’ iconic picture book The Snowman™ with a new design by award-winning illustrator and animator, Robin Shaw. It is the sixth to be added to TRM’s Christmas coin series celebrating Raymond Briggs’ timeless tale of a young boy and his snowman, and first in the series to feature the official coinage portrait of King Charles III.

The other celebrates another classic work of children’s literature – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C S Lewis – the magical tale of a realm called Narnia, which is reached through a wardrobe. It forms part of TRM’s Classic Children’s Literature coin series, which has seen authors and stories appear on a number of official coins, from celebrating the life and work of A A Milne (author of Winnie the Pooh), to Beatrix Potter’s loveable tales and characters.

RDM Launches First Women to Space Coin

In collaboration with the organisation Cosmic Girls, the Royal Dutch Mint has released a unique coin card: a token in combination with a €1 coin. The first coin card was presented to Cosmic Girls CEO Mindy Howard at a very appropriate location – the Space Expo Noordwijk space museum – against a backdrop of the Eagle lunar lander from 1969, which features on the card.

The coin card has been designed to draw more attention to women in space, According to RDM, only 12 countries in the world have had female representation in space and no more than 12% of people who have been to space are women.

Purchasers of the coin card are automatically entered into a draw to win a place on Inner Space Training, the only mental readiness training designed for commercial astronauts for suborbital flight.