The COTY 100
Ten Nominees in 10 Categories Will Vie for 2022 Coin of the Year Awards.
The year 2020 put us all to the test, but that didn’t stop the production of some spectacular coins across the globe. The Coin of the Year Nominating Committee met virtually on Nov. 8 to consider 400 2020-dated coins submitted by issuing entities from around the world.
After much debate, the COTY 100 – the 10 coins nominated in each of the 10 categories of the 2022 COTY Awards – was decided, and the results are going to make judging a challenge this year.
The 39th annual awards program, to be presented in early 2022, is presented by World Coin News and sponsored by The Journal of East Asian Numismatics.
“Once again this year we held a very successful Coin of the Year Nomination Committee meeting virtually with folks far flung around the globe, but close in numismatic spirit,” said Tom Michael, COTY co-coordinator and NumisMaster market analyst. “Everyone had done their homework and was quite familiar with the more than 400 coin types submitted by more than 50 countries and nearly 40 mints, central banks and contractors.”
And of those 400, there are a few issuing countries who aren’t often seen among the big mints. Barbados’ Blue Marble nomination in the Most Innovative Coin category, and Kazakhstan’s coin honoring the closure of Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site in the Best Crown category are just a couple of examples of these hidden gems. They provide fierce competition against the mints with multiple nominations across the 10 categories, such as Australia, France, Canada and China, to name a few.
“COTY Nominating Committee members arrived energized by having discovered diamonds in the “rough” gold and silver of this year’s submissions,” said Michael. “Everyone appreciated seeing entries from so many countries. In our final COTY 100 selections, there are about 37 countries represented.”
While not the beginning of the 39th Annual COTY Awards process, this is the start of the period leading up to selection by an esteemed Judges Panel of more than 100 experts from around the world of the 10 category winners – from which one final Coin of the Year will be chosen. Category awards and the top honor will be given to winners in early 2022.
The following is a complete list of the nominees in each award category.
A special thank-you to the 2022 Coin of the Year sponsor, The Journal of East Asian Numismatics.
