Winners Announced for 2024 Coin of the Year
The year 2024 marks the second year the Coin of the Year (COTY) ceremony was held in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money®. Held on Aug….
The year 2024 marks the second year the Coin of the Year (COTY) ceremony was held in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money®. Held on Aug. 9 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill., 10 trophies were awarded to 10 outstanding coins in design and innovation.
The Coin of the Year program is an internationally conducted competition presented by World Coin News to recognize and encourage outstanding coin design and innovation worldwide. The program, sponsored by the World’s Fair of Money® and The Journal of East Asian Numismatics, honors coins dated 2023 in 10 categories of competition as decided by an international panel of judges.
With a record number of submissions nominated during the worldwide call for nominations back in January, the nearly 600 coins were debated by the Nominating Committee to bring us the COTY 100. The COTY 100 is made up of 10 coins in 10 categories, leaving the judges with the hardest job of all: voting for the winners.
Numismatic design and innovation have continued to improve by leaps and bounds, closing the gaps between the winners. Many coins were neck-and-neck in the final hours of voting, managing to pull ahead by just a few votes. Multiple categories had the votes spread across their 10 competitors evenly, leaving the COTY staff on the edge of their seats, wondering which coin would pull ahead in the end.
The following are this year’s winners, 10 2023-dated coins that stood out above the rest, as well as the overall 2024 Coin of the Year champion. Tom Michael, COTY co-coordinator and NumisMaster Senior Market Analyst, provides commentary, bringing insight into this year’s fierce competition.
United States Takes Home Coin of the Year Trophy
The final ballot for Coin of the Year in 2024 was so evenly distributed that the top five coins were separated by a margin of just 10 votes. However, there was no mistaking the strength of the Liberty Through Perseverance 100 Dollar gold coins’ gracious design, as it surged past the next closest competitor by half of that spread.
The winning coin’s obverse features a bristlecone pine, a species native to California, Nevada and Utah. It is thought to be one the oldest living organisms on Earth, living up to 5,000 years. Bristlecone pines grow in places where other plants cannot and are often the species that are the first to repopulate the land after cataclysmic changes such as a lava run or glacial runoff. It was sculpted by Joseph Menna and designed by Elana Hagler.
The reverse design depicts a young bald eagle standing on a rocky outcropping moments before it takes flight. Artistic credit goes to John P. McGraw.
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