Beautiful World Coins

Four 2009 Silver and Gold Coins Celebrating Poland's Road to Freedom

The National Bank of Poland just issued four coins commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the June 4th, 1989 elections.

The elections of June 4th, 1989, were the first parliamentary elections in the Polish People’s Republic neither held under compulsion nor falsified. As a result, a new parliamentary and governmental system was established and the third Republic of Poland came into existence.

The 200-Zloty gold coin shows a silhouette of a person raising a hand and making the “V for victory” sign. In the background, a stylized image of the Sejm hall and people inside. The 25-Zloty gold coin shows a stylized inscription, SOLIDARNOŚC (Solidarity), replicating the logo of the Independent and Self-governing Solidarity Trade Union. The 10-Zloty silver coin shows a stylized image of Pope John Paul II holding a crosier in front of a crowd. Above the crowd, an inscription, SOLIDARNOŚĆ, in red and grey colors. The 2-Zloty coin shows a fragment of the conference hall of the Round Table talks with people inside. In the centre, a stylized image of a calendar page showing June 4th, 1989.

Mint: Warsaw

Year: 2009

Face value: 200, 25, 10 and 2 zlotych

Finish: Proof (200Zt, 25Z, and 10Zt), and Standard (2Zt)

Composition: 90% Gold (200Zt and 25Zt), 92.5% Silver (10Zt), and 89% Copper, 5% Zinc, 5% Aluminum, 1% Nickel (2Zt)

Size: 27 mm (200Zt and 2Zt), 12 mm (25Zt), and 32 mm (10Zt)

Weight: 15.5 grams (200Zt), 1 grams (25Zt), 14.14 grams (10Zt), and 8.15 grams (2Zt)

Mintage: 10,000 (200Zt), 40,000 (25Zt), 100,000 (10Zt), and 1,300,000 (2Zt)

See through the 2009 Eiffel Tower Silver Proof 10 Euro Coin!

The French Mint celebrates the 120th Anniversary of the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower with this 2009 commemorative 10 euro silver proof coin with a hollowed-out design in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.

Gustave Eiffel (1832 - 1923) was a gifted engineer and builder. He graduated from the prestigious Ecole Centrale de Paris. His extraordinary career was marked in 1876 by the construction of the Maria Pia bridge over the River Douro in Portugal, then by that of the Garabit Viaduct in central France in 1884 and Budapest station in Hungary. He was responsible for the metal structures of the Bon Marché department store and the Crédit Lyonnais bank in Paris, the cupola of the Nice observatory, and, above all, the very impressive internal structure of the Statue of Liberty. The construction of the Eiffel Tower in 1889 was his crowning achievement.

Mint: Paris

Year: 2009

Face value: 10 Euro

Finish: Proof

Composition: 90% silver

Size: 37 mm

Weight: 20.8 grams

Mintage: 10,000

The 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Silver Proof Dollar Coin

The United States Mint commemorates the bicentennial anniversary of Lincoln's birth with this 2009 silver proof coin featuring the Gettysburg Address and an image of President Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President, serving from 1861 to 1865, was one of America's great leaders, demonstrating uncommon courage during the Civil War, one of the greatest crises in the Nation’s history. His life is commemorated in music, poetry and sculpture; his words are quoted by poets and politicians; and his face appears on coins, currency and postage stamps. Mountains, cities, highways and schools throughout the country bear his name.

Born of humble roots in present-day LaRue County, Kentucky, on February 12, 1809, Lincoln reached the presidency through a combination of honesty, integrity, intelligence and commitment to the United States of America. With the firm belief that all men are created equal, he led the effort to end the institution of slavery in the United States.

Today, the Gettysburg Address is recognized as one of the most beautiful and poetic statements in American literature, a moving tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice and the ideals for which they died. Those immortal words Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg -- the last 43 of his most famous speech -- are inscribed on the reverse of this beautiful Commemorative Silver Dollar, encircled in a laurel wreath placed at its center.

Mint: Philadelphia

Year: 2009

Face value: 1 Dollar

Finish: Proof

Composition: 90% Silver, 10% Copper

Size: 38.1 mm

Weight: 26.73 grams

Mintage: 500,000

The South Magnetic Pole 1909-2009 Pure Silver Proof Coin from Australia

The Perth Mint issued the sixth coin in its popular Australian Antarctic Territory Series: the 100th anniversary of the first expedition to reach South Magnetic Pole. This 2009 pure silver proof coin features Douglas Mawson and two Antarctic explorers against a blue sky.

Following an exhausting and dangerous sledging journey, Australian scientists Douglas Mawson and TW Edgeworth David, together with Scottish doctor Alistair Forbes Mackay, reached the position on 16 January 1909. Mawson, Australia’s most famous Antarctic explorer, was responsible for the magnetic observations and the cartographic work.

Mint: Perth

Year: 2009

Face value: $1

Finish: Proof

Composition: 99.99% silver

Size: 40.6 mm

Weight: 31.135 grams

Mintage: 7,500

Anne of Green Gables on Commemorative Coin and Stamps

Anne of Green Gables is a book published in 1908 by the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) recounting the childhood adventures of a spirited, red-haired orphan named Anne Shirley. Inspired by her life on Prince Edward Island, Montgomery had been writing poems and stories since her childhood. The Anne of Green Gables series is made up of 8 books: Anne of Green Gables (1908), Anne of Avonlea (1909), Anne of the Island (1915), Anne's House of Dreams (1917), Rainbow Valley (1919), Rilla of Ingleside (1921), Anne of Windy Poplars (1936), and Anne of Ingleside (1939). The books were also made into television programs and movies both in Canada and the United States.

The Royal Canadian Mint and Canada Post celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first novel in the very popular Anne of Green Gables series with a commemorative coin and two commemorative stamps. The oversized 25-cent coin features a portrait of Anne Shirley by accomplished illustrator Ben Stahl. One stamp shows the same portrait of Anne Shirley, and the other one shows her beloved Green Gables house.

The coin:

Mint: Ottawa

Year: 2008

Face value: 25 Cents

Finish: Specimen (with colored reverse)

Composition: Three-ply nickel finish plated steel

Size: 35 mm

Weight: 12.61 grams

Mintage: N/A

The souvenir sheet of 2 stamps:

Date of Issue: 6/20/2008

Size: 125 mm x 78 mm (Horizontal)

Printing Process: Lithography in 7 colors

Quantity: 350,000

Denomination: 2 x 52 Cents

The 400th Anniversary of Quebec City on coins and stamps

Quebec City was founded on July 3, 1608 by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who established a settlement at Kébec, an Algonquin word meaning “place where the river narrows”. Quebec City's Old Town is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the only walled city on the continent. It was built by both French and British armies, and is now a tourist district with small boutiques and hundreds of historical and photographic points of interest. The last time I went to Quebec City's Old Town, I visited a traditional glass-blowing workshop where I saw a craftsman at work producing decorative bottles.

To celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Quebec City, the Royal Canadian Mint issued a 2008 silver proof dollar coin featuring Samuel de Champlain with the habitation he built at the foot of Cap-aux-Diamants at Kébec. There's also a proof coin with selective gold plating on both sides available in the 2008 proof coin set.

The RCM has also struck a 2008 commemorative 2-dollar circulation coin. Its design features the encounter between Samuel de Champlain's vessel and the two shores of the St-Lawrence River, which are represented by two of a fleur-de-lys' petals.

Canada Post recently issued a 2008 commemorative stamp celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Québec City, a joint issue with France's La Poste.

Mint: Ottawa

Year: 2008

Face value: 1 dollar, 2 dollars

Finish: Proof (dollar coin), brilliant uncirculated (Quebec City coin)

Composition: 92.5% silver, 7.5% copper (dollar coin), Ring: 99+% Nickel, Core: 92% Copper, 6% Aluminium, 2% Nickel (Quebec City coin)

Size: 36.07 mm (dollar coin), 28.03 mm (Quebec City coin)

Weight: 25.175 grams (dollar coin), 7.3 grams (Quebec City coin)

Mintage: 65,000 (silver dollar coin), 60,000 (silver and gold dollar coin), 2,000,000 (Quebec City coin)

French painters on silver 1/4 euro coins from France

The French Mint recently issued the 2008 Manet 1/4 euro silver coin, the second coin in the French Painters series. This series started in 2007 with the Degas coin and will end in 2015. A total of nine rectangular silver coins will feature French painters throughout five important artistic movements, from classicism to modernism.

The Impressionist movement is represented on the 2007 coin featuring Edgar Degas and one of his famous paintings, L'étoile, while the second coin features Edouard Manet and Olympia, an oil on canvas painting in the Realist style. Both paintings are currently housed at the Musée d'Orsay, the Impressionist museum in Paris.

Mint: Paris

Year: 2007 (Degas), 2008 (Manet)

Face value: 1/4 euro

Finish: Brilliant Uncirculated, colored

Composition: 90% silver

Size: 30 x 21 mm

Weight: 15 grams

Mintage: 5,000 (Degas), 10,000 (Manet)