Olympic Coins

Three new courses will be added to the summer conference held annually by the American Numismatic Association at Colorado College near its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. The conference, July 9 through 15, will offer newly designed courses in collecting Olympic coins, Mexican coinage and an advanced research seminar under the guidance of Robert W. Hoge, the ANA's Money Museum curator. The summer program also will include courses in the minting process, British coinage, the art of engraving and Liberty Seated coinage.

The 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage is expected to produce a new field of collecting. Most Western nations are planning to issue commemorative coins. The U.S. Mint is among those poised to act to commemorate the 1492 expedition. A bill is already under consideration in Congress to strike three coins - $5 gold, silver dollar and silver-clad half dollar - with different designs in 1991 and 1992. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Frank Annunzio (D., Ill.), departs from usual coinage bills in that it would create a foundation to use the income from the coins' surcharges.

Canada has struck its 1989 gold and silver commemoratives, both celebrating anniversaries of significant exploration in the territory. The silver dollar marks the 200th anniversary of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's canoe expedition of the Cook River. His voyage, from Lake Athabaska to the Arctic, proved that the river, which now bears his name, flowed into the Arctic and not the Pacific. The .500 fine silver coin has been designed by John Mardon, who also designed one of Canada's 1988 Olympic coins.

The U.S. Mint has taken the rare step of opening a competition for designs for the 1992 Olympic coins. For 20 years, the mint has asked for designs from a short list of sculptors and designers. The present competition, however, is open to anyone who wishes to enter and who meets the rules governing design. The 1992 Olympic series will include a $5 gold coin, a silver dollar and a duro-nickel half dollar. Sales of the coins will help pay for the cost of the games. Entrants may offer only one design for each side of each coin, a maximum of six designs.

More than 1,800 lots of ancient and international gold and silver coins will be sold Friday and Saturday during the Chicago International Coin Fair. The fair and the two-day auction will be held in the Downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel, on East Wacker Drive in Chicago. Gold coins of the Italian states, the kingdom of Italy, specific Italian duchies and the house of Savoy will be sold in the first day. Gold from Austria and other Hapsburg lands and a selection from 16th-century German states also will be offered.

Blood money, of a sort, will be auctioned Sept. 27 by the Kuenker firm in Osnabruck, Germany. Some 64 Scharfrichterpfennige, silver reminders of a gruesome 300-year-long tradition, will be sold for what experts estimate at around $20,000. A single coin was issued annually between 1540 and 1810 to the man chosen each year in the cities of the Hanseatic League (Hamburg, Bremen and Luebeck among them) to guard and protect the local executioner. The executioner's anonymity was essential, and each year the city government chose the oldest court officer for the job as protector.

The Olympic Collectors of the United States has postponed, perhaps indefinitely, the scheduled world show and bourse scheduled for Feb. 24 to 26 in Salt Lake City. The organization said similar shows being held in Europe and Asia had cut into dealer participation and prospects for foreign visitors. The continuing bad press about the Salt Lake City Games scheduled for 2002 is also a factor in the show's lack of participation. Late-night comics had already focused on the show, saying that in the tradition of the Olympics, all payments for coins and medals would be made under the table.

After the U.S. Mint opened a design competition for the 1992 Olympic coins, it received more than 1,100 entries. The mint has established three study committees to examine and make recommendations on the 30 designs chosen as finalists. The final selection will be made by the secretary of the Treasury. Meanwhile, former mint director Donna Pope, who supervised the Olympic coin design competition, has been appointed director of U.S. market activities for the International Olympic Committee's centennial coin program.

The 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul are being commemorated by South Korean gold and silver coinage, including the country's first one-ounce gold coin, the 50,000-won "Turtle Ship. " The first Olympic set includes two gold coins and four silver coins, all legal tender and all keyed to bullion weights of one ounce and half an ounce. All six coins bear a common reverse, the rose of Sharon, Korea's national flower, and the Taeguk, the emblem on the Korean flag. The gold coins represent Korean cultural events; the silver coins mark Olympic events - marathon, diving and a tug of war; and the half-ounce silver coin is engraved with the tiger symbol of Korea.

When the Iowa Centennial half dollars were struck in 1946, the state put 500 of the coins away for later - and more profitable - sale. Those coins are now available. Of the total, 400 will be sold to out-of-state collectors and 100 to Iowa residents. The cost of the half-dollars is $510, including postage, and a collector may order only one. Orders, including a money order or cashier's check made out to the Iowa Centennial Memorial Foundation, go to Sesquicentennial Coin Sale, State Capital Building, Des Moines, Iowa 50319.